Lake Überlingene.g. see Kolumban Hutter, Yongqi Wang and Irina P. Chubarenko. "Trasverse Internal Wave Motion in Lake Überlingen" in ''Physics of Lakes: Volume 2: Lakes as Oscillators''. London: Springer, 2011, p. 179. ( Standard German of Germany: ''Überlinger See'',

Swiss Standard German Swiss Standard German (SSG; ), or Swiss High German ( or ; ), referred to by the Swiss as , or , is the written form of one (German language, German) of four languages of Switzerland, national languages in Switzerland, besides French language, Fr ...

: ''Überlingersee'') is the northwestern "finger" of the Obersee, the lower part of

Lake Constance Lake Constance (, ) refers to three bodies of water on the Rhine at the northern foot of the Alps: Upper Lake Constance (''Obersee''), Lower Lake Constance (''Untersee''), and a connecting stretch of the Rhine, called the Seerhein (). These ...

. The boundary of lake is defined as the ferry link from Meersburg to Constance. It extends north to Bodman-Ludwigshafen. In contrast to the main south-eastern part of the Upper Lake, which is a

condominium A condominium (or condo for short) is an ownership regime in which a building (or group of buildings) is divided into multiple units that are either each separately owned, or owned in common with exclusive rights of occupation by individual own ...

, Lake Überlingen is considered German territory. The total area of Lake Obersee is about 473 km²; with its 61 km², Lake Überlingen is about as large as the Untersee part of the lake. The elevation of the water surface is about 395 m above

sea level Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an mean, average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal Body of water, bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical ...

. The maximum depth of Lake Überlingen of 147 m is significantly lower than that of rest of the Obersee with 254 m. Mainau, the Island of Flowers, is on the Constance side of Lake Überlingen. Neighboring municipalities are Meersburg,

Überlingen Überlingen (; ) is a German city on the northern shore of Lake Constance (Bodensee) in Baden-Württemberg near the German-Swiss border, border with Switzerland. After the city of Friedrichshafen, it is the second-largest city in the Bodenseek ...

, Uhldingen-Mühlhofen and Sipplingen in

Bodenseekreis Bodenseekreis ("Lake Constance district") is a ''Landkreis'' (district) in the south-east of Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Neighboring districts are (from west, clockwise) Konstanz, Sigmaringen and Ravensburg, and in Bavaria, Lindau district. ...

as well as Allensbach, Bodman-Ludwigshafen and the city of Constance in the Landkreis of Constance. The Seefeld Aach in Uhldingen flows into Lake Überlingen in Uhldingen, and the Stockacher Aach between Bodman and Ludwigshafen. Several smaller streams also flow into the lake. The intake point of the ''Bodensee-Wasserversorgung'' is in Sipplingen, at a depth of approximately 60 m. This firm supplies about 4 million people in many parts of

Baden-Württemberg Baden-Württemberg ( ; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a states of Germany, 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 i ...

with drinking water, producing about 135 million m³ annually. This represents approximately 1.25% of the discharge. Like the rest of Lake Constance, Lake Überlingen is a popular water sports area. Because of its steep banks, it is also a popular

scuba diving Scuba diving is a Diving mode, mode of underwater diving whereby divers use Scuba set, breathing equipment that is completely independent of a surface breathing gas supply, and therefore has a limited but variable endurance. The word ''scub ...

area. It is, however, dangerous: the banks drop off steeply to about 60 m, visibility is limited, the currents often change and the water temperature in the deeper parts is only 4-5 °C. Novice divers drown almost every year.

Geology

Lake Überlingen with its steep bank walls is a

rift In geology, a rift is a linear zone where the lithosphere is being pulled apart and is an example of extensional tectonics. Typical rift features are a central linear downfaulted depression, called a graben, or more commonly a half-graben ...

valley, created during the folding that created the

Alps The Alps () are some of the highest and most extensive mountain ranges in Europe, stretching approximately across eight Alpine countries (from west to east): Monaco, France, Switzerland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Germany, Austria and Slovenia. ...

. Its final shaped emerged during the Würm ice age, when the Rhine Glacier gouged out the whole of Lake Constance from south-east. The rocky walls are made of molasse, a

tertiary Tertiary (from Latin, meaning 'third' or 'of the third degree/order..') may refer to: * Tertiary period, an obsolete geologic period spanning from 66 to 2.6 million years ago * Tertiary (chemistry), a term describing bonding patterns in organic ch ...

sandstone Sandstone is a Clastic rock#Sedimentary clastic rocks, clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of grain size, sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate mineral, silicate grains, Cementation (geology), cemented together by another mineral. Sand ...

, which is quite soft, in accordance with its relatively young age. During a temporarily stable withdrawal stage of the Rhine glacier (the "Constance stage"), most of the Obersee was still covered by the glacier, the Lake Überlingen was already free of ice, so it was a glacial lake at the end of a glacier; icebergs floated on the lake after breaking off from the glacier. At that time there was an outflow, and thus the source of the Rhine, at the northwest end of Lake Überlingen, near Bodman-Ludwigshafen, in the direction of Radolfzell. This created a valley that is still clearly visible between the Radolfzell districts of Stahringen and Reute.

References

External links

Limnological state of Lake Constance
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lake Uberlingen Uberlingen Rhine Uberlingen