The soil of the Woëvre plain, inside Lorraine Regional Nature Park, is composed of impermeable clay whose thickness varies from 393 to 426 ft (120 to 130 m). It was therefore ideal for the construction of Madine Lake, decided at the beginning of the 1970s. Its location between the Moselle ponds to the east and Champagne's to the southwest makes the lake a primordial relay for aquatic avifauna. The site shelters more than 250 bird species and numerous mammals.