Lake Millstatt (german: Millstätter See, sometimes written "Millstättersee") is a lake in

Carinthia Carinthia (german: Kärnten ; sl, Koroška ) is the southernmost States of Austria, Austrian state, in the Eastern Alps, and is noted for its mountains and lakes. The main language is German language, German. Its regional dialects belong to t ...

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

Geography

It is situated at 588

metres above the Adriatic Metres above the Adriatic ( it, Metri sopra l'Adriatico, german: Meter über Adria, Serbo-Croatian: ''Metara iznad Jadrana'') is the vertical datum used in Austria, in the former Yugoslavian states of Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia-Hercegovina, Serbia, ...

(1,929 ft), north of the

Drava The Drava or Drave''Utrata Fachwörterbuch ...

Valley within the

Gurktal Alps The Gurktal Alps (german: Gurktaler Alpen, sl, Krške Alpe) is a mountain range located in the Central Eastern Alps in Austria, named after the valley of the Gurk river. The range stretches west to Lake Millstatt and east to Neumarkter Sattel ( ...

(

Nock Mountains The Nock Mountains (german: Nockberge or ''Nockgebirge'') are the westernmost and highest mountain range of the Gurktal Alps in Austria, spread over parts of the federal states of Carinthia, Salzburg and Styria. Their appearance is characterised b ...

) range of the

Central Eastern Alps The Central Eastern Alps (german: Zentralalpen or Zentrale Ostalpen), also referred to as Austrian Central Alps (german: Österreichische Zentralalpen) or just Central Alps, comprise the main chain of the Eastern Alps in Austria and the adjacent ...

, near the town of

Spittal an der Drau Spittal an der Drau is a town in the western part of the Austrian federal state of Carinthia. It is the administrative centre of Spittal an der Drau District, Austria's second largest district (''Bezirk'') by area. Geography The town is located o ...

. With a surface area of Lake Millstatt is the second largest lake of Carinthia (after Lake Wörth), though with a depth of the most voluminous by far. Kaernten MillstaetterSee 2006 07 17 009

Its steep shore gives the lake a

fjord In physical geography, a fjord or fiord () is a long, narrow inlet with steep sides or cliffs, created by a glacier. Fjords exist on the coasts of Alaska, Antarctica, British Columbia, Chile, Denmark, Germany, Greenland, the Faroe Islands, Ice ...

-like character. The Millstätter Alpe mountains in the north up to protect it from cold winds, so the water temperature can reach in summer. The narrow and long surface stretches over from east to west. In the south the wooded Hochgosch plateau, with a breadth of and an elevation of , divides the lake from the parallel Drava Valley. The name derives from the market town

Millstatt Millstatt am See is a market town of the Spittal an der Drau District in Carinthia, Austria. The traditional health resort and spa town on Lake Millstatt is known for former Benedictine Millstatt Abbey, founded about 1070. Geography It is situate ...

on the northern shore. Other municipalities near the lake are

Seeboden Seeboden am Millstätter See ( sl, Jezernica ) is a market town in Spittal an der Drau District in Carinthia, Austria. Geography The municipal area stretches from the western shore of Millstätter See to the town boundary of the district capit ...

and

Radenthein Radenthein ( sl, Radenče ) is a town in Spittal an der Drau District, in the Austrian state of Carinthia. Geography The town is situated in the Gegend valley (''Gegendtal'') of the Nock Mountains range (part of the Gurktal Alps), stretching to ...

-Döbriach. The shaded southern shore, a

protected area Protected areas or conservation areas are locations which receive protection because of their recognized natural, ecological or cultural values. There are several kinds of protected areas, which vary by level of protection depending on the ena ...

since 1970, is almost uninhabited.

Geology

The lake arose in the last glacial (''Würm'') period, about 20,000 years ago, when a northern offset of the Drava

glacier A glacier (; ) is a persistent body of dense ice that is constantly moving under its own weight. A glacier forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its Ablation#Glaciology, ablation over many years, often Century, centuries. It acquires dis ...

melted in situ and left

dead-ice Dead ice is ice which, though part of a glacier or ice sheet, is no longer moving. When this melts it does so in situ, leaving behind a hummocky terrain known as dead-ice moraine which is produced by the deposition of glacio-fluvial sediments and a ...

with extended

fluvial In geography and geology, fluvial processes are associated with rivers and streams and the deposits and landforms created by them. When the stream or rivers are associated with glaciers, ice sheets, or ice caps, the term glaciofluvial or fluviog ...

deposits at its western rim damming

meltwater Meltwater is water released by the melting of snow or ice, including glacial ice, tabular icebergs and ice shelves over oceans. Meltwater is often found in the ablation zone of glaciers, where the rate of snow cover is reducing. Meltwater can be ...

. The continuous erosive downcutting by the discharge of the

kettle A kettle, sometimes called a tea kettle or teakettle, is a type of pot specialized for boiling water, commonly with a ''lid'', ''spout'', and ''handle'', or a small electric kitchen appliance of similar shape that functions in a self-contained ...

into the Lieser River over the following millennia created a trench that considerably lowered the water level. The Millstatt area is part of the

Austroalpine nappes The Austroalpine nappes are a geological nappe stack in the European Alps. The Alps contain three such stacks, of which the Austroalpine nappes are structurally on top of the other two (meaning they were thrust over the other two). The name Aust ...

, consisting of

gneiss Gneiss ( ) is a common and widely distributed type of metamorphic rock. It is formed by high-temperature and high-pressure metamorphic processes acting on formations composed of igneous or sedimentary rocks. Gneiss forms at higher temperatures an ...

and

schist Schist ( ) is a medium-grained metamorphic rock showing pronounced schistosity. This means that the rock is composed of mineral grains easily seen with a low-power hand lens, oriented in such a way that the rock is easily split into thin flakes o ...

s with

quartzite Quartzite is a hard, non- foliated metamorphic rock which was originally pure quartz sandstone.Essentials of Geology, 3rd Edition, Stephen Marshak, p 182 Sandstone is converted into quartzite through heating and pressure usually related to tect ...

deposits, which arose by the

metamorphism Metamorphism is the transformation of existing rock (the protolith) to rock with a different mineral composition or texture. Metamorphism takes place at temperatures in excess of , and often also at elevated pressure or in the presence of chem ...

sand Sand is a granular material composed of finely divided mineral particles. Sand has various compositions but is defined by its grain size. Sand grains are smaller than gravel and coarser than silt. Sand can also refer to a textural class of s ...

and

clay minerals Clay minerals are hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates (e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4), sometimes with variable amounts of iron, magnesium, alkali metals, alkaline earths, and other cations found on or near some planetary surfaces. Clay mineral ...

, probably in the

Ordovician The Ordovician ( ) is a geologic period and System (geology), system, the second of six periods of the Paleozoic Era (geology), Era. The Ordovician spans 41.6 million years from the end of the Cambrian Period million years ago (Mya) to the start ...

period. Higher reaches comprise

garnet Garnets () are a group of silicate minerals that have been used since the Bronze Age as gemstones and abrasives. All species of garnets possess similar physical properties and crystal forms, but differ in chemical composition. The different s ...

schists including several

amphibole Amphibole () is a group of inosilicate minerals, forming prism or needlelike crystals, composed of double chain tetrahedra, linked at the vertices and generally containing ions of iron and/or magnesium in their structures. Its IMA symbol is A ...

occurrences.

Limnology

Numerous brooks flow into the lake, of which the Riegerbach near Döbriach is the biggest. At the western end of the lake the short Seebach stream leads the water into the Lieser river, which itself is a tributary of the Drava. The

oligotrophic An oligotroph is an organism that can live in an environment that offers very low levels of nutrients. They may be contrasted with copiotrophs, which prefer nutritionally rich environments. Oligotrophs are characterized by slow growth, low rates of ...

lake with its deep basin has a large hypolimnic volume and

meromictic A meromictic lake is a lake which has layers of water that do not intermix. In ordinary, holomictic lakes, at least once each year, there is a physical mixing of the surface and the deep waters. The term ''meromictic'' was coined by the Austri ...

waters, which are clear and reach drinking water quality. Fishery, especially for

trout Trout are species of freshwater fish belonging to the genera '' Oncorhynchus'', ''Salmo'' and ''Salvelinus'', all of the subfamily Salmoninae of the family Salmonidae. The word ''trout'' is also used as part of the name of some non-salmoni ...

, had been a source of food and work for residents since ancient times. Today sport fishing and angling is quite common not only for trout but also for several genera of

carp Carp are various species of oily freshwater fish from the family Cyprinidae, a very large group of fish native to Europe and Asia. While carp is consumed in many parts of the world, they are generally considered an invasive species in parts of ...

s, for

wels catfish The wels catfish ( or ; ''Silurus glanis''), also called sheatfish or just wels, is a large species of catfish native to wide areas of central, southern, and eastern Europe, in the basins of the Baltic, Black and Caspian Seas. It has been introd ...

northern pike The northern pike (''Esox lucius'') is a species of carnivorous fish of the genus '' Esox'' (the pikes). They are typical of brackish and fresh waters of the Northern Hemisphere (''i.e.'' holarctic in distribution). They are known simply as a ...

zander The zander (''Sander lucioperca''), sander or pikeperch, is a species of ray-finned fish from the family Percidae, which includes the perches, ruffes and darters. It is found in freshwater and brackish habitats in western Eurasia. It is a popul ...

perch Perch is a common name for fish of the genus ''Perca'', freshwater gamefish belonging to the family Percidae. The perch, of which three species occur in different geographical areas, lend their name to a large order of vertebrates: the Percif ...

and the

European eel The European eel (''Anguilla anguilla'') is a species of eel, a snake-like, catadromous fish. They are normally around and rarely reach more than , but can reach a length of up to in exceptional cases. Eels have been important sources of fo ...

Transportation

Lake Millstatt can be reached via the Spittal-Millstättersee station of the

Tauern Railway The Tauern Railway (german: Tauernbahn) is an Austrian railway line between Schwarzach- Sankt Veit in the state of Salzburg and Spittal an der Drau in Carinthia. It is part of one of the most important north-south trunk routes (''Magistrale'') in ...

line with passenger train service provided by the

Austrian Federal Railways Austrian may refer to: * Austrians, someone from Austria or of Austrian descent ** Someone who is considered an Austrian citizen, see Austrian nationality law * Austrian German dialect * Something associated with the country Austria, for example: ...

(ÖBB). The B98 Millstätter Straße

highway A highway is any public or private road or other public way on land. It is used for major roads, but also includes other public roads and public tracks. In some areas of the United States, it is used as an equivalent term to controlled-access ...

runs along the northern shore of the lake, connecting it with the

Tauern Autobahn The Tauern Autobahn (A 10) is an Autobahns of Austria, autobahn (motorway) in Austria. It starts at the Salzburg junction with the West Autobahn (A1), runs southwards, crosses the Hohe Tauern, Tauern mountain range on the main chain of the Alps an ...

(A10) motorway from

Salzburg Salzburg (, ; literally "Salt-Castle"; bar, Soizbuag, label=Bavarian language, Austro-Bavarian) is the List of cities and towns in Austria, fourth-largest city in Austria. In 2020, it had a population of 156,872. The town is on the site of the ...

Villach Villach (; sl, Beljak; it, Villaco; fur, Vilac) is the seventh-largest city in Austria and the second-largest in the federal state of Carinthia. It is an important traffic junction for southern Austria and the whole Alpe-Adria region. , the po ...

(part of the

European route E55 European route E55 is an European Route, E-route. It passes through the following cities: Helsingborg … Helsingør – Copenhagen – Køge – Vordingborg – Nykøbing Falster – Gedser … Rostock – Berlin – Lübbenau – Dresden – Te ...

) at the Spittal/Millstätter See junction. Since 1901 ship transport on the lake in summer is provided by the Millstättersee Shipping Company, which today runs four vessels.

References

External links

Carinthian Institute of Limnology

{{DEFAULTSORT:Millstatter See Lakes of Carinthia (state) Mountain lakes