Lake Doberdò (, ) is the name of a

sinkhole A sinkhole is a depression or hole in the ground caused by some form of collapse of the surface layer. The term is sometimes used to refer to doline, enclosed depressions that are also known as shakeholes, and to openings where surface water ...

in the

Province of Gorizia The province of Gorizia (; ; ) was a province in the autonomous Friuli-Venezia Giulia region of Italy. Initially disbanded on 30 September 2017, it was reestablished in 2019 as the regional decentralization entity of Gorizia (; ; ), and was reacti ...

Friuli-Venezia Giulia Friuli-Venezia Giulia () is one of the 20 regions of Italy and one of five autonomous regions with special statute. The regional capital is Trieste on the Gulf of Trieste, a bay of the Adriatic Sea. Friuli-Venezia Giulia has an area of and a ...

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

. It is located on the westernmost edge of the

Karst Karst () is a topography formed from the dissolution of soluble carbonate rocks such as limestone and Dolomite (rock), dolomite. It is characterized by features like poljes above and drainage systems with sinkholes and caves underground. Ther ...

(, ) plateau, close to the border with

Slovenia Slovenia, officially the Republic of Slovenia, is a country in Central Europe. It borders Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the south and southeast, and a short (46.6 km) coastline within the Adriati ...

. It is named after the village of

Doberdò del Lago Doberdò del Lago (; Venetian language#Regional variants, Bisiacco: ; ) is a (municipality) in the Province of Gorizia, Regional decentralization entity of Gorizia in the Italy, Italian region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia, located about northwest of ...

().

Overview

It has an area of approximately 0.36 km², depending on the time of year, and it is located around 2 km southwest of the village of Doberdò, not far from the

Adriatic The Adriatic Sea () is a body of water separating the Italian Peninsula from the Balkans, Balkan Peninsula. The Adriatic is the northernmost arm of the Mediterranean Sea, extending from the Strait of Otranto (where it connects to the Ionian Se ...

coast. The water is filtered through various

ponor A ponor is a natural opening where surface water enters into underground passages; they may be found in Karst topography, karst landscapes where the geology and the geomorphology is typically dominated by porous limestone rock. Ponors can drain s ...

s, and it is connected with the springs feeding the

Timavo The Timavo River, known in Slovene as the or ', is a two-kilometre stream in the Province of Trieste. It has four sources near San Giovanni () near Duino () and outflows in the Gulf of Panzano (part of the Gulf of Trieste) southeast of Monfa ...

River, which are located a few kilometers southeast. The depth varies from 5 to 10 m. The lake is usually largest in autumn, when it is 1.2 km long and 350 m wide. During the frequent

drought A drought is a period of drier-than-normal conditions.Douville, H., K. Raghavan, J. Renwick, R.P. Allan, P.A. Arias, M. Barlow, R. Cerezo-Mota, A. Cherchi, T.Y. Gan, J. Gergis, D. Jiang, A. Khan, W. Pokam Mba, D. Rosenfeld, J. Tierney, ...

periods, the lake almost completely disappears, becoming a

marsh In ecology, a marsh is a wetland that is dominated by herbaceous plants rather than by woody plants.Keddy, P.A. 2010. Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation (2nd edition). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 497 p More in genera ...

-like area. Lakes of Friuli-Venezia Giulia Sinkholes of Europe Landforms of Italy {{FriuliVeneziaGiulia-geo-stub