88 | 100 It doesn't get any colder than this!
Foto Koch celebrates 100 years and we tell YOUR best stories, because without you we wouldn't be here. Today's story is about the coldest lake in Germany: Funtensee in Berchtesgadener Land.
Funtensee
Amatus KusicThe Funtensee - colder than cold!
Funtensee is located in the Steinernes Meer, a mountain massif between Königssee and the Hochkönig massif, at an altitude of 1,633m. It is the coldest lake in Germany with a lowest value ever measured of 45.9 degrees. Due to its special geological location in a basin, these extreme temperatures sometimes prevail here in the winter months. The cold extremes are explained by the location of the lake, which is surrounded by mountains and lies on the bottom of a basin. In winter, the rays of the low sun hardly ever reach the bottom of the mountain basin. On clear nights the residual heat radiates. Since the cold air cannot flow out of the depression, a cold air lake forms.
A special phenomenon
These temperatures are only valid around Funtensee, because at Kärlingerhaus, which is already a few meters higher, it is up to 20° warmer. Quite astonishing: At the Funtensee there is a forest boundary downwards, not upwards! With every meter towards the lake the trees become smaller. At the bottom of Funtensee there is practically no vegetation left. The depression in which Funtensee lies was formed over a long period of time by karst erosion processes and subsequent overforming. Depressions formed by carbonic acid weathering were carved even deeper by a glacier up to 350 m thick during the last ice age. After its melting, the glacier left behind ground moraine material that sealed the drains in the lake's bedrock. The deepest point of Funten Lake is around 5 meters.
