Eckernförde Bay
Template:Wikidata Infobox Eckernförde Bay (Template:Lang-de; Template:Lang-da) is a firth and a branch of the Bay of Kiel between the Danish Wahld peninsula in the south and the Schwansen peninsula in the north in the Baltic Sea off the lands of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. The bay extends around 17 km (11 mi) deep into the land and is 10 km (6.2 mi) wide at its entrance as Booknis-Eck (municipality of Waabs) and Danish-Nienhof (municipality of Schwedeneck) mark the endpoints. The bay is up to 28 m (92 ft) deep. The border to the Kiel Fjord lies at the Bülk Lighthouse. The once forested Danish Wahld peninsula between Kiel Fjord and Eckernförde Bay once formed the borderland between the Saxons and the Danes until the Middle Ages. At the end of the bay lies the town of Eckernförde.[1]
Geography
The bay formed during the last Ice Age between 120,000 to 10,000 years ago from a glacier. According to some geologists, the depth contour of the Eckernförde Bay had already formed before the Ice Age and contributed to the fact that the Eckernförde glacier was divided into two parts, the northern Windebyer-Noor and the southern Wittensee-Goossee.
The original postglacial end of Eckernförde Bay, today's Windebyer Noor, is now separated from the Baltic Sea by a headland on which the town of Eckernförde was built. In 1929 man-made embankments further separated the Noor. There are plans to re-establish a canal between the Bay and the Windebyer Noor.
The shores of the bay are shaped by the tides and the surf. During high winds from the northeast and southwest, heavy sea might build up. When the water level is 0.75 m (2.5 ft) higher, sand and gravel is being eroded from the cliff coast. In some places, the coastline recedes 15 to 20 cm (5.9 to 7.9 in) every year. In the southeast the hills of the Terminal moraines of the last Ice Age are cut. In this way, a 30 m (98 ft) high and 3.6 km (2.2 mi) long cliff has formed in front of Altenhof. Its steadily eroded material is partly deposited further west and separated the Goossee from the Eckernförde Bay. Several sand banks run parallel to the beach. The banks are mainly forested with deciduous trees.[2][3]
History
After Danish settlers had established in Schwansen around 700 and German settlers at Danish Wahld from 1260, the Eckernförde Bay became the linguistic border between Low German in the south and Danish in the north. It is still noticeable in the Nordic toponyms in Schwansen, where German as a colloquial language subsequently had spread. However, Danish was widespread in Schwansen until the 19th century. Both Schwansen and the Danish Wahld retained their feudal character until the early modern period.
During the Battle of Eckernförde in 1849, the Danish Ship of the line Christian VIII and the Danish frigate Gefion were shot at by beach batteries from Schleswig-Holstein troops. Christian VIII exploded and the frigate surrendered and was taken over by the German-aligned Schleswig-Holstein army.[4]
A few years later, the 1872 Baltic Sea flood caused severe damage to the coastal towns of Eckernförde Bay. The town of Eckernförde in particular suffered severe damage.[5]
References
- ^ "Spannende Radrouten in der Eckernförder Bucht". Ostseebad Eckernfoerde. Retrieved January 4, 2021.
- ^ "Effects of the Temporal Variability of Storm Surges on Coastal Flooding". ResearchGate. Retrieved January 5, 2021.
- ^ Samuel J. Bentley, Charles A. Nittrouer. "Physical and Biological Influences on the Formation of Sedimentary Fabric in an Oxygen-Restricted Depositional Environment: Eckernförde Bay, Southwestern Baltic Sea". jstor. Retrieved January 5, 2021.
- ^ Gert Laursen. "Katastrofen ved Eckernførde". archive org. Retrieved January 5, 2021.
- ^ Thomas Sävert. "Sturmflut Ostsee 1872". naturgewalten. Retrieved January 5, 2021.
External links
- Map (in German)
