Schwarza River (Saale)

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The Schwarza is a left tributary of the Saale in Thuringia, Germany, and 53 km long. Its source is in the Thuringian Forest, near Neuhaus am Rennweg. It flows into the Saale in Rudolstadt. Other towns on the Schwarza are Schwarzburg and Bad Blankenburg.

The Schwarza valley (Schwarzatal) parallels the axis of the Schwarzburg anticline (Schwarzburger Sattel), a structure that divides the Thuringian forest to the northwest from the Thuringian slate hills (Thüringische Schiefergebirges) to the southeast.^[1] The Schwarzburg Anticline was created by the collision between Laurentia and Gondwana around 350 million years ago.^[2] The rock of the Schwarzburg Anticline is metamorphic, with a core of ordovician rock, largely quartzite.

The Schwarza valley has been known for its deposits of placer gold since the 12th century. In 1442, the rights to the gold deposits of the Schwarza valley were granted to the Counts of Schwarzburg.^[3] Recreational placer miners continue to find occasional gold nuggets in the Schwarza to this day.^[4]

[edit] In literature

In the epic alternate history series 1632 series, the Schwarza is the river nearest the environs of the time and space displaced fictional town of Grantville. A loop of the Schwarza is cut through at Schwarzburg and diverted into what had been Buffalo Creek, a tributary of the Monongahela River and is used for cooling water for its power plant. The short story "Schwarza Falls" in Grantville Gazette V describes in some detail the local geography, which due to terrain elevation differences, results in the castle and village of Schwarzburg looking down on the Grantville power plant and into the circle of land about Grantville.

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