13 Jun 2013
With a surface area of 6.8 km2 and a length of 9 km Achensee is by far Tyrol´s largest lake located some 400 m above the Inn Valley. Surprisingly little scientific work has been done on the sediment processes and Quaternary history of this lake, which receives sediment input from several streams and alluvial fans and whose natural outflow towards the river Isar had been stopped when the power station in Jenbach started operation in 1927.
Motivated by our research project on the Baumkirchen palaeolake we teamed up with Prof. Achim Brauer from the GeoForschungsZentrum Potsdam and his technician Brian Brademann and made a first attempt to retrieve shallow sediment cores in the deepest parts of Achensee (between 130 and 134 m water depths). We used a light-weight raft and a drilling setup optimised for obtaining drilling liner cores up to 2 m in length.
Due to the great water depth we encountered several technical problems but managed to obtain two half metre-long cores from the northern part of the lake which will allow us to gain first insights into the nature of the sediment in the deep parts of this lake.
The are grateful to Toni Kandler for his enthusiastic on-site support.
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