Though it remains the second largest lake in Switzerland (for now), a new report from the Schwäbische Zeitung has found that Lake Constance will slowly be consigned to the history books. Experts revealed that the body of water is shrinking by 2,5 hectares of land every year, and will eventually disappear.
Though it is hard to imagine today, the 536-kilometre-squared Lake Constance will not last forever. According to experts quoted in the newspaper, the cities of Romanshorn, Rorschach, Bregenz and Friedrichshafen will likely lose their lakeside vista thanks to silt and rock coming down from the Swiss mountains.
They explained that every year, the Rhine River deposits 2,5 million cubic metres of silt and rubble into the lake, which is gradually shrinking its size - the lake itself loses 2,5 hectares of area per year. Therefore, if nothing is done to stop it, experts predict the lake will eventually be washed away.
Luckily, no one alive today will be there to see the end of the Bodensee, as it is expected to take around 20.000 years for the lake to fully disappear. However, “One thing is also clear: the process cannot be stopped completely,” the Schwäbische Zeitung noted, explaining that while dams constructed in Switzerland, Austria and Germany can slow the process down, it cannot be completely stopped.
While it is unclear what exactly will happen, the silt deposited in the lake will eventually turn the body of water into terra firma with the Rhine running through it. “At some point in the distant future, Germany's largest lake will have disappeared,” the Schwäbische Zeitung concluded.