The Hassel Auxiliary Dam or Hassel Dam
Hassel Dam
at en.structurae.de. Accessed on 23 Jan 10. ( or ''Vorsperre Hassel'') is an auxiliary dam or pre-dam
A forebay is an artificial basin or pool of water situated upstream of a larger water body such as a reservoir, lake
A lake is often a naturally occurring, relatively large and fixed body of water on or near the Earth's surface. It is lo ...
on the Rappbode Reservoir in the Harz mountains
The Harz (), also called the Harz Mountains, is a Mittelgebirge, highland area in northern Germany. It has the highest elevations for that region, and its rugged terrain extends across parts of Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Thuringia. The nam ...
of central Germany
Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...
. It is located near Hasselfelde
Hasselfelde is a town in the district of Harz, in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. It is in the eastern Harz, approximately 17 km south of Wernigerode. Since 1 January 2010 it has been part of the town of Oberharz am Brocken. Its population is 1,941 ( ...
in the state of Saxony-Anhalt
Saxony-Anhalt ( ; ) is a States of Germany, state of Germany, bordering the states of Brandenburg, Saxony, Thuringia and Lower Saxony. It covers an area of
and has a population of 2.17 million inhabitants, making it the List of German states ...
and impounds the waters of the Hassel, the eastern of the two headwaters of the Rappbode Reservoir. Together with its auxiliary dams, the reservoir supplies drinking water and is owned by the Saxony-Anhalt Dam Company (''Talsperrenbetrieb Sachsen-Anhalt'').
The purpose of the auxiliary dam is to pre-clean water mechanically and biologically before it flows into the main reservoir.
Water can be collected from various heights and diverted to the reservoir.
The barrier itself is a 21 m high gravity dam
A gravity dam is a dam constructed from concrete or stone masonry and designed to hold back water by using only the weight of the material and its resistance against the foundation. Gravity dams are designed so that each section of the dam is ...
. The bedrock consists mostly of grauwacke
Greywacke or graywacke ( ) is a variety of sandstone generally characterized by its hardness (6–7 on Mohs scale), dark color, and poorly sorted angular grains of quartz, feldspar, and small rock fragments or sand-size lithic fragments set i ...
, but with some thinly laminated argillaceous
Clay minerals are hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates (e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4), sometimes with variable amounts of iron, magnesium, alkali metals, alkaline earths, and other cations found on or near some planetary surfaces.
Clay mineral ...
shale
Shale is a fine-grained, clastic sedimentary rock formed from mud that is a mix of flakes of Clay mineral, clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g., Kaolinite, kaolin, aluminium, Al2Silicon, Si2Oxygen, O5(hydroxide, OH)4) and tiny f ...
as well.
There is a circular path around the Hassel Auxiliary Dam. The crest of the dam is accessible to pedestrians and the lake may be fished provided permission is obtained.
The Hassel Auxiliary Dam is checkpoint no. 53 in the Harzer Wandernadel
The Harzer Wandernadel is a system of hiking awards in the Harz mountains in central Germany. Hikers (or mountain bikers) can earn awards at different levels of challenge by walking to the various checkpoints in the network and stamping their ...
hiking trail network.
See also
* List of reservoirs and dams in Germany
* Dams in the Harz
A dam is a barrier that stops or restricts the flow of surface water or underground streams. Reservoirs created by dams not only suppress floods but also provide water for activities such as irrigation, human consumption, industrial use, aqua ...
References
External links
Hassel Dam at en.structurae.de
Saxony-Anhalt Dam Company
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Dams in the Harz
Dams in Saxony-Anhalt
Dams completed in 1960