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The Blautopf (German for ''Blue pot'') is a spring that serves as the source of the river Blau in the
karst Karst is a topography formed from the dissolution of soluble rocks such as limestone, dolomite, and gypsum. It is characterized by underground drainage systems with sinkholes and caves. It has also been documented for more weathering-resistant ...
landscape on the
Swabian Jura The Swabian Jura (german: Schwäbische Alb , more rarely ), sometimes also named Swabian Alps in English, is a mountain range in Baden-Württemberg, Germany, extending from southwest to northeast and in width. It is named after the region of ...
's southern edge. It is located in
Blaubeuren Blaubeuren () is a town in the district of Alb-Donau near Ulm in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. it had 11,963 inhabitants. Geography Geographical location The core city Blaubeuren lies at the foot of the Swabian Jura, west of Ulm. Neighbori ...
, Alb-Donau-Kreis,
Baden-Württemberg Baden-Württemberg (; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a German state () in Southwest Germany, east of the Rhine, which forms the southern part of Germany's western border with France. With more than 11.07 million inhabitants across a ...
, Germany (approximately west of
Ulm Ulm () is a city in the German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Danube on the border with Bavaria. The city, which has an estimated population of more than 126,000 (2018), forms an urban district of its own (german: link=no ...
).


Description

It forms the drain for the Blau
cave A cave or cavern is a natural void in the ground, specifically a space large enough for a human to enter. Caves often form by the weathering of rock and often extend deep underground. The word ''cave'' can refer to smaller openings such as se ...
system; the river Blau after flows into the river
Danube The Danube ( ; ) is a river that was once a long-standing frontier of the Roman Empire and today connects 10 European countries, running through their territories or being a border. Originating in Germany, the Danube flows southeast for , pa ...
in the city of Ulm. Because of its high water pressure, the spring has developed a funnel-like shape with a depth of 21 metres (69 ft). The water's peculiarly blue color, varying in intensity depending on weather and flow, is the result of physical properties of the nanoscale
limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms wh ...
particles densely distributed in the water. They cause
Rayleigh scattering Rayleigh scattering ( ), named after the 19th-century British physicist Lord Rayleigh (John William Strutt), is the predominantly elastic scattering of light or other electromagnetic radiation by particles much smaller than the wavelength of the ...
of light, preferentially scattering the blue color of the visible light. A similar effect is observed at the Blue Lagoon near
Reykjavík Reykjavík ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Iceland. It is located in southwestern Iceland, on the southern shore of Faxaflói bay. Its latitude is 64°08' N, making it the world's northernmost capital of a sovereign state. With a p ...
, where the color originates from nanoscale
silica Silicon dioxide, also known as silica, is an oxide of silicon with the chemical formula , most commonly found in nature as quartz and in various living organisms. In many parts of the world, silica is the major constituent of sand. Silica is ...
particles.Lonely Planet Best of Germany (Travel Guide), 2019. Benedict Walker, Kerry Christiani, Marc Di Duca. 324 pag. , On the banks of the Blautopf is located a
hammer mill A hammer mill, hammer forge or hammer works was a workshop in the pre-industrial era that was typically used to manufacture semi-finished, wrought iron products or, sometimes, finished agricultural or mining tools, or military weapons. The featur ...
driven by the water of the spring. A film documenting the exploration of the cave is shown at the same location.


Geology

The Blautopf is a spring in a
karst Karst is a topography formed from the dissolution of soluble rocks such as limestone, dolomite, and gypsum. It is characterized by underground drainage systems with sinkholes and caves. It has also been documented for more weathering-resistant ...
environment. One characteristic of a karst environment is that water, which drains quickly through the limestone in one area, surfaces in another. Karst environments only have subterranean drainage, and there are no bodies of water above ground. Therefore, the size of the Blautopf depends greatly on the level of rainfall, though it never entirely dries out. The Blautopf is the second largest spring in Germany, after the
Aachtopf The Aachtopf () is Germany's biggest karst spring, south of the western end of the Swabian Jura near the town of Aach. It produces an average of 8,500 litres per second. Most of the water stems from the River Danube where it disappears undergr ...
. Over millennia, subterranean water has created a huge system of caves in the area. Prominent examples are the '' Blauhöhle'' (Blau-cave), discovered by
Jochen Hasenmayer Jochen Hasenmayer (born 28 October 1941 in Pforzheim, Germany) is a German speleologist and cave diver from Birkenfeld in Baden-Württemberg, whose spectacular dives have frequently made headlines. Cave diving Hasenmayer began his cave divin ...
in 1985, and the ''Apokalypse'' (Apocalypse), discovered on 23 September 2006 by Jochen Malmann and Andreas Kücha, members of the ''Arbeitsgemeinschaft Blautopf'', a club dedicated to the exploration of the Blautopf's cave system. While the Blauhöhle is completely filled with water for a length of about 1,500 metres (approximately 4,935 ft), the Apokalypse is dry; because of its dimensions—170 metres long, 50 metres wide, 50 metres high—it is a special feature of the region.


Diving

The entry to the Blauhöhle lies at a depth of about 22 meters (about 70 ft). Therefore, access is restricted to experienced and well-trained divers. In the 1980s, city authorities were forced to prohibit diving in the Blautopf after several accidents, including some fatal ones. Permission to dive in the Blautopf has only been granted to a few organizations: among them, the ''Arbeitsgemeinschaft Blautopf'', a group of scientific
speleologists Speleology is the scientific study of caves and other karst features, as well as their make-up, structure, physical properties, history, life forms, and the processes by which they form (speleogenesis) and change over time (speleomorphology). ...
led by Jochen Hasenmayer, and rescue services. The most recent fatal accident occurred in 2003, killing Bernd Aspacher, a member of Hasenmayer's team.


Legends

Numerous
legend A legend is a genre of folklore that consists of a narrative featuring human actions, believed or perceived, both by teller and listeners, to have taken place in human history. Narratives in this genre may demonstrate human values, and possess ...
s and folk tales refer to the Blautopf. Its characteristic colour was explained by the account that every day someone would pour a vat of ink into the Blautopf. Another myth stated that every time someone tried to measure the Blautopf's depth with a leaden
sounding line Depth sounding, often simply called sounding, is measuring the depth of a body of water. Data taken from soundings are used in bathymetry to make maps of the floor of a body of water, such as the seabed topography. Soundings were traditionally ...
, a water nix stole the sounding line. Therefore, it was not possible to determine the depth of the Blautopf. Because of this tale, there is a rock called ''Klötzle Blei'' ("little block of lead" in the local dialect) in the vicinity of the Blautopf. A well-known
tongue-twister A tongue twister is a phrase that is designed to be difficult to articulate properly, and can be used as a type of spoken (or sung) word game. Additionally, they can be used as exercises to improve pronunciation and fluency. Some tongue twisters pr ...
in the Swabian dialect told to local children, refers to this rock: :''Glei bei Blaubeira leit a Kletzle Blei'' – :''´s leit a Kletzle Blei glei bei Blaubeira'' Standard High German: :''Gleich bei Blaubeuren liegt ein Klötzchen Blei'' – :''Es liegt ein Klötzchen Blei gleich bei Blaubeuren'' English Translation: :''Near Blaubeuren, there lies a block of lead'' – :''There lies a block of lead near Blaubeuren'' The novelist and poet
Eduard Mörike Eduard Friedrich Mörike (8 September 18044 June 1875) was a German Lutheran pastor who was also a Romantic poet and writer of novellas and novels. Many of his poems were set to music and became established folk songs, while others were used by ...
incorporated this
folklore Folklore is shared by a particular group of people; it encompasses the traditions common to that culture, subculture or group. This includes oral traditions such as tales, legends, proverbs and jokes. They include material culture, ranging fr ...
and other tales into the romantic
novella A novella is a narrative prose fiction whose length is shorter than most novels, but longer than most short stories. The English word ''novella'' derives from the Italian ''novella'' meaning a short story related to true (or apparently so) facts ...
''Das Stuttgarter Hutzelmännlein''. They were woven into the background story of a journeyman travelling from
Stuttgart Stuttgart (; Swabian: ; ) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is located on the Neckar river in a fertile valley known as the ''Stuttgarter Kessel'' (Stuttgart Cauldron) and lies an hour from the S ...
to Blaubeuren. In particular, the story of the ''Schöne Lau'', a
mermaid In folklore, a mermaid is an aquatic creature with the head and upper body of a female human and the tail of a fish. Mermaids appear in the folklore of many cultures worldwide, including Europe, Asia, and Africa. Mermaids are sometimes asso ...
, and her husband, a male water-nix from the
Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal mediterranean sea of the Atlantic Ocean lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bounded by Bulgaria, Georgia, Ro ...
, is told in great detail. Because the Schöne Lau could not laugh, the nix punished her by confining her to the Blautopf, and only allowing her to have still-born children. He would only allow her to return and give birth to a living child once she had laughed five times. In the end, the landlady of the
inn Inns are generally establishments or buildings where travelers can seek lodging, and usually, food and drink. Inns are typically located in the country or along a highway; before the advent of motorized transportation they also provided accommo ...
''Nonnenhof'' came to her aid. ''(The complete German text is available a
Eduard Mörike: Die Schöne Lau
)''


References


Bibliography


External links


Homepage of the Arbeitsgemeinschaft Blautopf (English version available)

Homepage of the city of Blaubeuren (in German)



Film taken at Blautopf
{{Authority control Springs of Germany Karst springs Karst formations of Germany Lakes of Baden-Württemberg Landforms of Baden-Württemberg Caves of Germany Alb-Donau-Kreis