The Timmermoor is a

natural monument A natural monument is a natural or cultural feature of outstanding or unique value because of its inherent rarity, representative of aesthetic qualities, or cultural significance. They can be natural geological and geographical features such as w ...

, about 4 hectares in area, in the southeast of

Bergstedt Bergstedt () is a quarter of Hamburg, Germany, in the borough of Wandsbek. It is located on the northeastern border of the borough and of the city. It is part of the area of Walddörfer (lit. ''forest villages''). In 2023 10,855 lived in Bergst ...

, a quarter of

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...

, Germany. It was placed under protection by a Hamburg senate act of 4 February 1986. The bog pond is a

kettle hole A kettle (also known as a kettle hole, kettlehole, or pothole) is a depression or hole in an outwash plain formed by retreating glaciers or draining floodwaters. The kettles are formed as a result of blocks of dead ice left behind by retreating ...

that formed around 20,000 years ago during the last

ice age An ice age is a long period of reduction in the temperature of Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental and polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers. Earth's climate alternates between ice ages, and g ...

and is surrounded by

heathland A heath () is a shrubland habitat found mainly on free-draining infertile, acidic soils and is characterised by open, low-growing woody vegetation. Moorland is generally related to high-ground heaths with—especially in Great Britain—a coole ...

and woods. Contrary to earlier suppositions that it was a hole scoured out by a

tornado A tornado is a violently rotating column of air that is in contact with the surface of Earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud. It is often referred to as a twister, whirlwind or cyclone, although the ...

, it is now thought that the hollow was formed by the settling of soil layers over thawing

dead ice Dead ice is the ice in a part of a glacier or ice sheet that is no longer moving. As the ice melts, it leaves behind a hummocky terrain known as dead-ice moraine. Dead-ice moraine is produced by the accumulation of sediments carried by glaciers t ...

. The area is a habitat for rare bog plants that are sensitive to trampling underfoot and that are only able to live on nutrient-poor soils. In addition, endangered

dragonflies A dragonfly is a flying insect belonging to the infraorder Anisoptera below the order Odonata. About 3,000 extant species of dragonflies are known. Most are tropical, with fewer species in temperate regions. Loss of wetland habitat threate ...

and

amphibian Amphibians are ectothermic, anamniote, anamniotic, tetrapod, four-limbed vertebrate animals that constitute the class (biology), class Amphibia. In its broadest sense, it is a paraphyletic group encompassing all Tetrapod, tetrapods, but excl ...

s live here.

References

External links

Timmermoor
City of Hamburg

Natural monuments in Germany Bogs of Hamburg {{Hamburg-geo-stub