Kiel Canal Kiel Canal The Kiel Canal (, literally "North-[to]-Baltic Sea canal", formerly known as the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Kanal) is a long freshwater canal in the German state of Schleswig-Holstein. The canal was finished in 1895, but later widened, and links the North Sea at Brunsbüttel to the Baltic Sea at Kiel-Holtenau. An average of is saved by using the Kiel Canal instead of going around the Jutland Peninsula. This not only saves time but also avoids storm-prone seas and having to pass through the Sound or Belts. Besides its two sea entrances, the Kiel Canal is linked, at Oldenbüttel, to the navigable River
Geology of the Baltic Sea in the early Holocene (ca. 10,000 years ago) glacier meltwater accumulated between the front of the ice sheet and the southern shores that were free of glacier ice. This accumulation of freshwater constituted a lake known as the Baltic Ice Lake. This lake did not mix with seawater from the west because the ground on the whole depression rose faster than sea level did. Eventually mixing and connection to the ocean did occur when the glacier front retreated to the north beyond Billingen about 11,500 years ago. The Baltic Ice Lake drained then rapidly reaching sea level. From this point