Zinsel du Nord

Zinsel du Nord
The Northern Zinsel in Mertzwiller
Location France, regions of Lorraine and Alsace
Reference no. FR: A32-0200
Length 43 km (27 mi)dep1 [1]
Source The source of the Moderbach near Mouterhouse
48°58′57″N 7°23′03″E / 48.9825°N 7.3843°E / 48.9825; 7.3843Coordinates: 48°58′57″N 7°23′03″E / 48.9825°N 7.3843°E / 48.9825; 7.3843
Source height ca. 285 m
Mouth near Schweighouse-sur-Moder into the Moder
48°49′25″N 7°44′25″E / 48.82361°N 7.74028°E / 48.82361; 7.74028
Mouth height ca. 145 m
Descent ca. 140 m
Basin Rhine
Progression Moder → Rhine → North Sea
Catchment 338.7 km2 (130.8 sq mi)dep1 [2]
Discharge[2] Average mid:   3.28 m³/s
Left tributaries Falkensteinerbach

The Zinsel du Nord (German: Nördliche Zinsel, also Moderbach), also called the North Zinsel or Northern Zinsel in English, is a left tributary of the River Moder, which is 43 kilometres (27 mi) long from the source of the Moderbach stream. The Zinsel du Nord and its tributaries drain northwest in the North Vosges, especially in the Pays de Bitche in the east of the department of Moselle. Its catchment area is 339 square kilometres (131 sq mi).

Course

The Northern Zinsel begins at a height of about 225 metres above sea level at the confluence of the Breidenbach and Moderbach, near Mouterhouse. Whilst the Breidenbach rises at Zwölfapostelstein (Fr.: pierre de douze apotres) near Goetzenbruck, the source of the Moderbachs is on the western edge of Lemberg. Its largest tributary is the Falkensteinerbach, which joins it at Uttenhofen from the left.

The Northern Zinsel then flows through a valley which is very wide in places, surrounded by the endless forests of the Mouterhouse State Forest, in a southeasterly direction to the Étang de Baerenthal and the popular holdiday resort of the same name. At its exit from the Vosges into the Upper Rhine Plain is the Lower Alsatian village of Zinswiller. Near Gumbrechtshoffen it leaves the North Vosges Regional Nature Park and, from Uttenhoffen, follows the N 62 road and the Niederbronn-les-Bains – Hagenau railway line, crossing the Hagenau Forest from Mertzwiller.

Near Schweighouse-sur-Moder in the canton of Hagenau it empties into the Moder in the middle of an industrial estate.

History

In 1196 the river was called the Cinzele. Other references are thought by Albrecht Greule to relate to the Southern Zinsel or the gunsinus rivus, a stream that has not been clearly identified, and which appear in old boundary descriptions recorded by Maursmünster Abbey.[3]

In the 19th century, there was a lot of iron industry along the Northern Zinsel, that were owned by the De Dietrich industrial dynasty. This led to heavy deforestation which has since been recovered.

References

  1. ↑ Sandre. "Fiche cours d'eau - Moderbach (A32-0200)".
  2. 1 2 see external link: Débits caractéristiques de la Zinsel du nord
  3. ↑ Albrecht Greule: Vor- und frühgermanische Flußnamen am Oberrhein, Heidelberg, 1973, p. 49, p. 95. ISBN 3-533-02294-3, zugl. Diss. der Universität Freiburg/Br. 1971
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