Thermal water

Thermal water in Tuttlingen? You wouldn’t necessarily have expected it. But during the construction of the new “TuWass” leisure pool at the end of the 1990s, a borehole was drilled to check whether thermal water could be extracted for the new pool. And indeed, at a depth of around 642 meters, the drillers struck the hoped-for mineral thermal water in the shell limestone layer. The temperature of this water was unexpectedly high at around 49 degrees Celsius. This is because a water temperature of around 28.5° Celsius would actually have been expected at these depths.

There was obviously something unusual here. Experts suspect a connection with the volcanism in Hegau. This is because volcanoes repeatedly erupted in nearby Hegau between around 12 and 7 million years ago. These Hegau volcanoes, such as Hohentwiel, can be admired and climbed today.

Pumping Tuttlingen’s thermal water is actually worthwhile. The spring can be operated continuously with a withdrawal rate of 3 liters per second. However, the hot water does not rise to the surface on its own, but has to be pumped up from a depth of over 300 meters. Before the water flows into the basin, it is cooled and treated. The energy extracted from the thermal water covers around fifty percent of the spa’s annual heating requirements.

The TuWass leisure pool can therefore call itself a recognized thermal spa and bathers can not only have fun in the pool, but also enjoy the healing powers of the thermal water.