This is a list of high-altitude lakes of Switzerland. It includes all significant lakes located either entirely or partly in Switzerland, both natural and artificial, with an area of at least 4 ha (9.9 acres) and a location at over 800 m (2,600 ft) above sea level. This altitude approximately corresponds to the transition between the foothill zone and the montane zone in both the Alps and the Jura Mountains, the two mountainous areas of Switzerland.[1]
Lakes can be found up to elevations of almost 3,000 m (9,800 ft), the climatic snow line in the Alps. For each lake, the culminating point of the drainage basin is indicated, along with the river basin of which it is part.
Distribution of mountain lakes by canton
edit| Canton | 800-1199m | 1200- 1599m |
1600- 1999m |
2000- 2399m |
2400m+ | Total (800m+) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Appenzell I. | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| Bern | 0 | 5 | 10 | 6 | 1 | 22 |
| Fribourg | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Glarus | 2 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 7 |
| Graubünden | 7 | 7 | 18 | 12 | 20 | 64 |
| Jura | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Neuchâtel | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Nidwalden | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Obwalden | 1 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 5 |
| Schwyz | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 |
| St. Gallen | 4 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 8 |
| Ticino | 2 | 1 | 10 | 19 | 3 | 35 |
| Uri | 0 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 0 | 9 |
| Valais | 0 | 8 | 6 | 20 | 15 | 49 |
| Vaud | 3 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 7 |
| Switzerland | 26 | 31 | 59 | 61 | 40 | 217 |
Main list
editSee also
editNotes and references
edit- ^ "Zone altitudinali di vegetazione". Ticino.ch. Archived from the original on 2014-06-18. Retrieved 2014-06-18.
- ^ Maximum elevation. Retrieved from the Swisstopo topographic maps (1:25,000)
- ^ VECTOR25 Primary surfaces (Swisstopo) [1] (areas with one decimal were retrieved from Google Earth)
- ^ Topographical catchment areas of Swiss waterbodies (Federal Office for the Environment FOEN) [2]. This corresponds in most cases to the highest mountain overlooking the lake. Basin highest points that are over 10 kilometres from the lake are indicated in italics.
- ^ "Niveau des lacs". Groupe E SA. Archived from the original on 2014-06-10. Retrieved 2014-06-26.