Dead Lake

Dead Lake Totensee
Totensee with Grimsel pass road on the shore
Location: Grimsel pass Tributaries: Sidelbach Drain: Brook to Grimselsee, Meiebach in the direction of the Rhone with flood relief
Canton of Valais , Switzerland
Coordinates	669 091  /  156 953 coordinates: 46 ° 33 '37 "  N , 8 ° 20' 23"  O ; CH1903:  669 091  /  one hundred and fifty-six thousand nine hundred and fifty-three
Data on the structure
Lock type:	Gravity dam
Construction time:	1949-1950
Height of the barrier structure :	20 m
Building volume:	3 650  m³
Crown length:	74 m
Crown width:	14 m
Operator:	Oberhasli power plants (KWO)
Data on the reservoir
Altitude (at congestion destination )	2160  m above sea level M.
Water surface	27 ha
Reservoir length	700 m
Maximum depth	34 m
Storage space	2 600 000  m³
Catchment area	1.7 km²
Design flood :	3.4 m³ / s

The Totesee (name on the national map of Switzerland ), often called Totensee , is a 0.27 km² reservoir in the canton of Valais on the Grimsel Pass on the border with the canton of Bern . The lake is at 2160  m above sea level. M. directly on the watershed between the North Sea and the Mediterranean . At a maximum depth of 34 m, it has a volume of around 2.6 million m³.

history

At the site of today's reservoir was a small natural lake, the water of which originally flowed over the Rhone into the Mediterranean.

The Totesee got its name because around 800 years ago soldiers from the army of Duke Berchtold V von Zähringen were driven into the lake by the Valais. Also about 200 years ago soldiers of General Suvorov and Napoleon's armies died near the lake.

Use of hydropower

From 1942 the water of the lake was used by the hotelier Hermann Seiler for the operation of the small hydroelectric power station Gletsch , whose electricity was used to supply the community of the same name . In the years 1949 to 1950, the Oberhasli power plants (KWO) built the gravity dam on the south-eastern shore of the lake, which prevented the water from flowing out towards the Rhone, so that the water from the reservoir from then on went over an open stream into the Grimselsee (1,909 m above sea level) . M.) could be conducted. The water rights on the lake were taken over by the KWO in 1951, and Gletsch has been receiving electricity from the new power plant since then.

Fish death

In November 2006 all fish in the lake died due to initially unexplained circumstances . A subsequent scientific investigation showed that an overhang of algae robbed the lake of the oxygen in the water and thus led to the death of fish. After the cause became known, the Valais Fisheries Inspectorate released 400 rainbow trout and 400 Canadian lake trout in the lake.

and display information about the image

The Dead Lake at the top of the pass

Web links

Commons : Totesee  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Totesee on the ETHorama platform

Individual evidence

1. ↑ List of dams in Switzerland. In: swissdams. Retrieved December 19, 2018 (French).