Devil's Church (karst spring)
| Devil church | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 The devil's church |
||||
| location | ||||
| Country or region | District of Kirchdorf an der Krems , Upper Austria | |||
| Coordinates | 47 ° 47 ′ 15 ″ N , 14 ° 12 ′ 22 ″ E | |||
| height | 544 m above sea level A. | |||
|
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| geology | ||||
| Mountains | Eastern Alps | |||
| Source type | Karst spring | |||
| rock | limestone | |||
| Hydrology | ||||
| River system | Danube | |||
| Receiving waters | Vorderer Rettenbach → Steyr → Enns → Danube → Black Sea | |||
| Bulk | 1028 l / s | |||
Coordinates: 47 ° 47 ′ 15 ″ N , 14 ° 12 ′ 22 ″ E
The Teufelskirche is a rock arch and karst spring in the Sengsengebirge in Upper Austria .
Location and description
The Teufelskirche lies at an altitude of 544 m above sea level. A. on the left (southern) slope of the Rettenbachgraben in the municipality of St. Pankraz . It is a natural rock arch in the Jurassic limestone that is around 16 m wide and 12 m high. It is surrounded by a forest consisting of spruce and beech. The rock arch and the springs emerging below were declared a natural monument in 1984 .
Hydrology
The spring rises at different heights depending on the water flow. After a short distance, the water flows into the ditch of the Vorderen Rettenbach , which only occasionally has water above it.
The spring discharge fluctuates strongly and increases rapidly, especially with snowmelt or precipitation. When the water flow increases, the conductivity and water temperature decrease at the same time . Since 1995 a measuring point of the Hydrographic Service Upper Austria has been located at the Teufelskirche. The mean flow rate is 1028 l / s (1995–2011 series), the minimum 20 l / s (measured on September 17, 2006), and the maximum 37,390 l / s (August 12, 2002). The water temperature fluctuates between 1.9 and 12.0 ° C with an average value of 6.5 ° C, the conductivity between 127 and 318 μS / cm with an average value of 218 μS / cm.
The spring shows a special behavior when the water level is low. Below a water level of around 44 cm, the water level suddenly begins to drop by 1.5 cm, but then immediately rises again by 2.4 cm and thus to a higher level than before. The duration of this pulsation is initially 2.5 hours, but becomes shorter and shorter, while the amplitude increases. The reason for this behavior has not yet been clarified.
See also
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Province of Upper Austria, nature conservation database: Devil's Church in the anterior Rettenbachtal
- ^ Office of Upper Austria. Provincial government, nature conservation department (ed.): Nature and landscape - models for Upper Austria. Volume 35: Sengsengebirge spatial unit. Linz 2007 ( PDF; 4.4 MB )
- ↑ Federal Ministry for Agriculture, Forestry, Environment and Water Management (Ed.): Source observation in the Hydrographic Service in Austria. Communications from the Hydrographic Central Office, issue 70, Vienna 2005, Appendix 1 ( PDF; 7.6 MB )
- ↑ Federal Ministry for Agriculture, Forestry, Environment and Water Management (Ed.): Hydrographisches Jahrbuch von Österreich 2011. 119th Volume. Vienna 2013, p. Q55, PDF (12.9 MB) on bmlrt.gv.at (yearbook 2011)
- ↑ Klaus Kaiser: The Devil's Church (Vorderer Rettenbach). In: Source observation in the Hydrographic Service in Austria, communications from the Hydrographic Central Office, issue 70, Vienna 2005, pp. 34–37 ( PDF; 5.8 MB )