Colourful lakelets (Polish "Kolorowe Jeziorka") is the name of three (sometimes four) artificial

pond A pond is an area filled with water, either natural or artificial, that is smaller than a lake. Defining them to be less than in area, less than deep, and with less than 30% emergent vegetation helps in distinguishing their ecology from ...

s formed in place of former mines at the slope of Wielka Kopa mountain (871 m) in

Rudawy Janowickie The Rudawy Janowickie or Landeshut Ridge (german: Landeshuter Kamm, cs, Janovické rudohoří) is a mountain range in Sudetes in Poland. See also *Colourful lakelets Colourful lakelets (Polish "Kolorowe Jeziorka") is the name of three (somet ...

, range in Sudetes Mountains,

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...

. The biggest one and the oldest (1785) was named Hoffnung Grube and now hosts the Purple lakelet. Names of the other mines were: Neues Glück (1793, presently Azure Lakelet), and Gustav Grube (1796; the Green Lakelet). These places were mined from 1785 to 1925 for

pyrite The mineral pyrite (), or iron pyrite, also known as fool's gold, is an iron sulfide with the chemical formula Fe S2 (iron (II) disulfide). Pyrite is the most abundant sulfide mineral. Pyrite's metallic luster and pale brass-yellow hue giv ...

. The lakelets have various surface elevation. The Purple lakelet (560 m) owes its colour to chemical composition of its banks and bottom which are abundant with

iron compounds Iron shows the characteristic chemical properties of the transition metals, namely the ability to form variable oxidation states differing by steps of one and a very large coordination and organometallic chemistry: indeed, it was the discovery o ...

, mainly pyrite. The pond is filled with water solution of sulphuric acid (pH = 3). It is highly recommended to avoid any contact with the water for it might be dangerous. Below Purple Lakelet there is a smaller hollow which is at times filled with waters falling from the pond above – it is called Yellow Lakelet. The colour of Azure Lakelet (635 m; also called: Blue or Emerald) water is connected with the presence of

copper Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkis ...

ion An ion () is an atom or molecule with a net electrical charge. The charge of an electron is considered to be negative by convention and this charge is equal and opposite to the charge of a proton, which is considered to be positive by conve ...

s. Its water, besides its colour, is clean, thus during hot summer days there can be seen people bathing in it; water is usually quite cold here, though. Green Lakelet (730 m; also called Black Pond), same as Azure Lakelet owes its colour to copper compounds. Depending on

rainfall Rain is water droplets that have condensed from atmospheric water vapor and then fall under gravity. Rain is a major component of the water cycle and is responsible for depositing most of the fresh water on the Earth. It provides water f ...

, it temporarily disappears. File:ŻółteJeziorko.JPG, Yellow Lakelet File:Kolorowejeziorko1.jpg, Purple Lakelet File:Błękitne Jeziorko - Wyrobisko po kopalni pirytów.JPG, Azure Lakelet File:MG 2766-HDR(3) (tz).jpg, Azure Lakelet file:Kolorowejeziorko3.jpg, Green Lakelet

References

External links

Kolorowe Jeziorka
(Polish)
Kolorowe Jeziorka
(Polish)

(Polish) {{DEFAULTSORT:Colourful Lakelets Lakes of Lower Silesian Voivodeship