The Upper and Lower Eissee are two lakes in the

Dachstein Mountains The Dachstein Mountains (german: Dachsteingebirge) are a mountain range in the Northern Limestone Alps. The term is used by the Austrian Alpine Club in its classification of the Eastern Alps as one of the 24 sub-ranges of the Northern Limestone A ...

in the Austrian state of

Upper Austria Upper Austria (german: Oberösterreich ; bar, Obaöstareich) is one of the nine states or of Austria. Its capital is Linz. Upper Austria borders Germany and the Czech Republic, as well as the other Austrian states of Lower Austria, Styria, a ...

. They lie north of a 2,794 m high mountain, the

Gjaidstein The Hoher Gjaidstein is a 2,794 m high mountain peak in the Dachstein Mountains in Upper Austria east and above the Hallstätter Glacier. It may be reached from the summit station of the Dachstein South Face Cable Car or from the Simony Hut e ...

, at an elevation of around .

Lower Eissee

The Lower Eissee (german: Unterer Eissee) lies at in a shallow

cirque A (; from the Latin word ') is an amphitheatre-like valley formed by glacial erosion. Alternative names for this landform are corrie (from Scottish Gaelic , meaning a pot or cauldron) and (; ). A cirque may also be a similarly shaped landform ...

, the ''Taubenkar''. It was left behind by the melting of the

Hallstätter Glacier The Hallstätter Glacier (german: Hallstätter Gletscher) (formerly also called the ''Karleisfeld'' or Karl Icefield) is the largest glacier in the Dachstein Mountains. It lies immediately beneath the northern foot of the Dachstein itself and ...

that, until the middle of the 19th century, still extended as far as the doline of the upper ''Taubenkar''. When the glacier retreated (today its snout lies at about 2,200 m), the Lower Eissee was left behind in the basin, because the

moraine A moraine is any accumulation of unconsolidated debris (regolith and rock), sometimes referred to as glacial till, that occurs in both currently and formerly glaciated regions, and that has been previously carried along by a glacier or ice shee ...

gravel is lined with limestone

silt Silt is granular material of a size between sand and clay and composed mostly of broken grains of quartz. Silt may occur as a soil (often mixed with sand or clay) or as sediment mixed in suspension with water. Silt usually has a floury feel when ...

. For a long time after it had been formed, roughly to the turn of the century, large fields of

dead ice Death is the irreversible cessation of all biological functions that sustain an organism. For organisms with a brain, death can also be defined as the irreversible cessation of functioning of the whole brain, including brainstem, and brain ...

could be found on its shores, but today they have disappeared. The Lower Eissee has neither aboveground headwaters nor tailwaters.

Upper Eissee

The Upper Eissee (''Oberer Eissee'') lies about 700 metres west of the Lower Eissee at a height of some 2,100 m below the

Simony Hut The Simony Hut (german: Simonyhütte) is an Alpine club hut belonging to the Austrian Alpine Club (OeAV) located at a height of 2,205 metres, just below the Hallstätter Glacier at the foot of the Hoher Dachstein in Austria. The hut, which is n ...

and the Dachstein Chapel. It was formed by the continued retreat of the glacier during the 20th century. In 1921 the ice had retreated so far that a small lake formed at its foot. This rapidly grew in size as a result of further melting until it measured about 100 x 50 metres (330 x 165 ft) and was up to 10 metres (33 ft) deep, but subsequently shrank again to only a fifth of this size due to the climate conditions. In 1951 it covered an area of ; at that time the glacier was still calving into the lake. Since then the ice has retreated well away from the lakeshore. The Upper Eissee has now split into three smaller lakes as a result of silting up.Federal Office of Weights and Measures: Austrian map series 1:50.000
AMAP Online
accessed on 28 November 2009

References

Dachstein Mountains Lakes of Upper Austria {{UpperAustria-geo-stub