what term is given to the border between the central alps and the southern limestone alps?

Digital relief of the Alps

The Alps (German: Alpen ; French: Alpes ; Italian: Alpi ; Slovenian: Alpe ) are a slap-up mount system of Europe, forming parts of 9 nations: stretching from Republic of bosnia and herzegovina, Republic of croatia, Austria, and Slovenia in the due east, through Italy, Switzerland, Principality of liechtenstein and Germany to France in the w. Yet, only Switzerland and Austria can exist considered truthful Alpine nations.

The highest mount in the range is Mont Blanc, at 15,774 feeet (4,808 meters) on the French-Italian edge. The highest and almost densely settled mount chugalug of Europe, the Alps occupy an area of approximately lxxx,000 square miles (200,000 sq km) and are home to some twenty million people.

The word "Alps" was taken via French from Latin Alpes (meaning "the Alps"), which may be influenced by the Latin words albus (white) or altus (high) or more than likely a Latin rendering of a Celtic original.

The mountains contribute much of what is left of the original forest cover of primal and southern Europe. Some of the continent's last remaining forests of a most natural state are in the Alps ecoregion. Domicile to a loftier level of biodiversity, the popularity of the expanse'due south winter resorts and its increasing population threaten this.

ane Geography
- 1.1 Climate
- 1.two Bodies of water, water ice
- i.three Principal passes
2 Divisions
- 2.1 Principal chain
  - 2.ane.1 Eastern Alps
  - 2.1.2 Western Alps
three Geology
4 History
- 4.i Political history
- iv.ii Exploration
5 Civilization
6 Flora and fauna
- 6.1 Flora
- half-dozen.two Animate being
seven References
8 External links
9 Credits

The tapestry of the Alps—its beauty, unique culture and diversity of wild fauna—contribute profoundly to Europe and the many nations this range traverses.

Geography

Climate

Glacier de Taconnaz in the French Alps with Dome de Gouter.

The Alps are a archetype example of what happens when a temperate expanse at lower altitude gives way to college elevation terrain. Elevations effectually the world which have cold climates like to those found in polar areas accept been chosen tall. A rise from sea level into the upper regions of the atmosphere causes the temperature to decrease. The effect of mountain chains on prevailing winds is to carry warm air belonging to the lower region into an upper zone, where it expands in volume at the cost of a proportionate loss of heat, often accompanied by the precipitation of wet in the class of snow or rain.

Bodies of h2o, ice

Several glaciers are located in the Alps, the longest of which is the Aletsch Glacier in the Bernese Alps. They may be institute in all of the higher groups of mountains from the Dauphiné Alps in France to the Hohe Tauern in central Republic of austria, and the primary ascent routes on many of the highest mountains pass over glaciers.

Very few large lakes are found within the body of the Alps, merely a number are situated around the edge, particularly in areas formerly covered by glacier tongues. These include Lago Maggiore, Lake Como and Lake Garda on the southern side of the Alps in Italy, and the lakes of Switzerland, southern Deutschland and the Austrian Salzkammergut in the north.

The main drainage basins of the Alps are those of the Rhine, the Rhone, the Danube and the Po. These take equally main tributaries:

Rhine: Aare, Reuss, posterior Rhine;
Rhone: Durance, Drôme, Isère;
Danube: Sava, Drava, Mura, Enns, Inn;
Po: Oglio, Adda, Ticino, Dora Baltea.

Other of import rivers draining the Alps include the Var, Adige and Piave.

Principal passes

The Alps do non grade an impassable bulwark; they have been traversed for war and commerce, and afterwards by pilgrims, students, and tourists. Crossing places by road, train or foot are called passes. These are depressions in the mountains to which a valley leads from the plains and hilly pre-mountainous zones.

Divisions

The Alps with international borders marked

The Großglockner, south of Salzburg, Republic of austria

Chief chain

The "master chain of the Alps" follows the watershed from the Mediterranean Body of water to the Wienerwald, passing over many of the highest and near famous peaks in the Alps. From the Colle di Cadibona to Col de Tende information technology runs westwards, before turning to the north-west and and then, well-nigh the Colle della Maddalena, to the north. Upon reaching the Swiss border, the line of the main chain heads approximately east-north-east, a heading it follows until its end about Vienna.

Several significant groups of mountains are separated from the main chain by sizable distances. Among these groups are the Dauphine Alps, the Eastern and Western Graians, the entire Bernese Alps, the Tödi, Albula and Silvretta groups, the Ortler and Adamello ranges, and the Dolomites of Due south Tyrol, not to speak of the lower Alps of Vorarlberg, Bavaria and Salzburg.

While smaller groups within the Alps may be hands divers by the passes on either side, defining larger units tin can be problematic. A traditional divide exists between the Western Alps and the Eastern Alps, which uses the Splügen Pass (Italian: Passo dello Spluga) on the Swiss-Italian border, together with the Rhine to the north and Lake Como in the south equally the defining features. While the Splügen Pass is neither the everyman nor the near of import laissez passer in the Alps, it is approximately half-way along the chief chain, and makes a convenient boundary.

Eastern Alps

The Eastern Alps are normally subdivided according to the different lithology (rock limerick) of the more central parts of the Alps and the groups at its northern and southern fringes:

Flysch zone (upwardly to from the Vienna woods to Bregenzerwald. The Swiss Jura do geographically not vest to the Alps;
Northern Limestone Alps, peaks upward to 3,000 m;
Central Eastern Alps (Austria, Swiss), peaks up to iv,050 yard;
Southern Limestone Alps, peaks up to 3,500 m.

The border betwixt the Key Alps and the Southern Limestone Alps is the Periadriatic Seam. The Northern Limestone Alps are separated from the Cardinal Eastern Alps by the Grauwacken Zone.

However, the geologic subdivision, based on tectonics, suggests a different system:

The Helvetic system in the due north (including the Jura mountains),
the Penninic system: mainly Central Alps (Engadine and "Tauern window") and Flysch Alps,
the Austroalpine arrangement: Northern Limestone Alps, Graywacke-Schist zone, Central Crystalline,
the Southern Alps (Southern Limestone Alps and other chains south of the Periadriatic Seam)
s of a huge geologic mistake ("tall-dinaric seam") parts of the Dinarides.

Western Alps

The Western Alps are commonly subdivided into the following:

Ligurian Alps (from Savona to Colle di Tenda)
Maritime Alps (from Colle di Tenda to Colle de la Maddalena)
Cottian Alps (from Colle de la Maddalena to Col du Mont Genevre)
Dauphiné Alps (from Col du Mont Genevre to Col du Mont Cenis)
Graian Alps (from Col du Mont Cenis to the Little Saint Bernard Pass)
Pennine Alps (from the Little St. Bernard Pass to the Saint Gotthard Laissez passer)
Bernese Alps (to the n-west of the Furka Laissez passer)
Lepontine Alps (from Saint Gotthard Laissez passer to Splügen Pass)
Glarus Alps (northward-east of Oberalp Pass)
Appenzell Alps (northward of Sargans)

Within the Eastern Alps, the well-nigh widely used subdivision is the Alpenvereins-Einteilung, which divides the region into virtually seventy small areas. Run into Northern Calcareous Alps, Central Eastern Alps and Southern Calcareous Alps for details.

Geology

The European Alps from space in 2002.

The Alps form a part of a 3rd orogenic belt of mount chains, chosen the Alpide belt, that stretches through southern Europe and Asia from the Atlantic all the mode to the Himalayas. This chugalug of mountain chains was formed during the Tall orogeny. A gap in these mountain chains in central Europe separates the Alps from the Carpathians off to the east. Orogeny took place continuously and tectonic subsidence is to blame for the gaps in betwixt.

The Alps arose as a result of the collision of the African and European tectonic plates, in which the western function of the Tethys Body of water, which was formerly in between these continents, disappeared. Enormous stress was exerted on sediments of the Tethys Ocean basin and its Mesozoic and early Cenozoic strata were pushed confronting the stable Eurasian landmass by the northward-moving African landmass. Nigh of this occurred during the Oligocene and Miocene epochs. The pressure formed swell recumbent folds, or nappes, that rose out of what had become the Tethys Sea and pushed north, often breaking and sliding one over the other to grade gigantic thrust faults. Crystalline basement rocks, which are exposed in the higher central regions, are the rocks forming Mont Blanc, the Matterhorn, and high peaks in the Pennine Alps and Hohe Tauern.

The mural seen today is generally formed past glaciation during the past two 1000000 years. At least five ice ages have done much to change the region, scooping out the lakes and rounding off the limestone hills along the northern edge. Glaciers have been retreating during the by ten,000 years, leaving big granite erratics scattered in the forests in the region. As the concluding ice age ended, it is believed that the climate inverse so rapidly that the glaciers retreated dorsum into the mountains in a span of about 200 to 300 years.

History

The Matterhorn, mirrored in Riffelsee.

Political history

Picayune is known of the early dwellers in the Alps, save from the scanty accounts preserved by Roman and Greek historians and geographers. A few details have come down to us of the conquest of many of the Alpine tribes by Augustus.

The successive emigration and occupation of the Alpine region by various Teutonic tribes from the fifth to the sixth centuries are known only in outline, because to them, as to the Frankish kings and emperors, the Alps offered a route to other places rather than a permanent residence.

Information technology is non until the final breakup of the Carolingian Empire in the tenth and eleventh centuries that it becomes possible to trace out the local history of the Alps. From this betoken, the history of the Alps region can be followed through the historical battles for power and control among the nations in the surface area. In the western Alps this includes the feudal lords of Savoy, the Dauphine and Provence. In 1349, the Dauphiné cruel to France, while in 1388 the county of Nice passed from Provence to the house of Savoy, which besides then held Piedmont too every bit other lands on the Italian side. Central Alps history involves the formation of the Swiss Federation, while the political history of the Eastern Alps can be considered nearly totally in terms of the accelerate or retreat of the house of Habsburg.

Exploration

The college regions of the Alps were long left to the sectional attention of the people of the adjoining valleys, even when Tall travellers (as distinguished from Alpine climbers) began to visit these valleys. The ii men who showtime explored the regions of ice and snow were H.B. de Saussure (1740-1799) in the Pennine Alps, and the Benedictine monk of Disentis, Placidus a Spescha (1752-1833), most of whose ascents were made before 1806, in the valleys at the sources of the Rhine.

Civilisation

Swiss players of the "alphorn," a brass instrument played by the mountains dwellers.

The key and eastern Alps are rich in traditions dating dorsum to pre-Christian (infidel) times, with surviving elements amalgamated from Germanic, Gaulish (Gallo-Roman), and Raetian culture.

Aboriginal customs survived in the rural parts of Austria, Switzerland, Bavaria, Slovenia, western Croatia and Friul in the grade of trip the light fantastic, art, processions, rituals and games. The high regional diversity is a result of the mutual isolation of Alpine communities. In the Alps, the relationship betwixt the Roman Catholic Church and paganism has been an ambivalent ane. While some customs survived only in the remote valleys inaccessible to the church'southward influence, other customs were actively assimilated over the centuries. In light of the dwindling rural population of the Alps, many community have evolved into more modern interpretations.

The seasonal transfer of grazing cows (cattle-drive) to different pastures, known locally as Almabtrieb. Austrian urban center of Kufstein, 2005.

The traditional economy of the Alps throughout history has been based upon rearing cattle involving seasonal migration between valley and high pastures. This exercise has shaped a lot of landscape in the Alps, as without it, most areas beneath ii,000 meters would be forests. While tourism and industry contribute today much to Alpine economic system, seasonal migration to high pastures is notwithstanding practiced in Bavaria, Austria, Italy and Switzerland, except in their nigh frequented tourist centers. In some places, cattle are taken care of by local farmer families who movement to higher places. In others, this chore is for herdsmen who are employees of the cooperative owning the pastures. This exercise contributes in a large style to traditional Alpine civilisation, equally at that place are those who spend the winters isolated in the high pastures.

The Alps are pop both in summer and in winter as a destination for sightseeing and sports. Wintertime sports (alpine and nordic skiing, tobogganing, snowshoeing, ski tours) tin be skillful in most regions from December to Apr, while in summer the Alps are popular with hikers, mountain bikers, para-gliders, mountaineers, while many lakes attract swimmers, sailors and surfers. The lower regions and larger towns of the Alps are well accessed by motorways and principal roads, but higher passes and by-roads can exist treacherous fifty-fifty in summertime. Many passes are closed in winter. A multitude of airports around the Alps (and some within), too equally long-altitude rails links from all neighboring countries, beget large numbers of travelers easy admission from abroad.

Flora and fauna

Flora

Alpenrose growing in the Austrian Alps.

A natural vegetation limit with distance is given past the presence of the principal deciduous copse—oak, beech, ash, and sycamore maple. These practice not reach exactly to the same elevation, nor are they ofttimes found growing together; but their upper limit corresponds accurately enough to the change from a temperate to a colder climate that is farther proved by a change in the wild herbaceous vegetation. This limit usually lies about 1,200 metres (3,940 ft) above the bounding main on the n side of the Alps, but on the southern slopes it oftentimes rises to i,500 metres (4,920 ft), sometimes even to i,700 metres (v,580 ft).

This region is not always marked past the presence of the feature trees. Human being interference has nearly exterminated them in many areas, and, except for the beech forests of the Austrian Alps, forests of deciduous copse are rarely plant. In many districts where such woods one time existed, they take been replaced by the Scots pine and Norway spruce, which are less sensitive to the ravages of goats, who are the worst enemies of such trees. The mean annual temperature of this region differs little from that of the British Islands; but climatic conditions are widely dissimilar. In the Alps, snow usually stays for several months, until spring and summertime, which are considerably warmer on average than those seasons in Uk.

Above the forestry, there is oft a band of brusque pine copse (Pinus mugo), which is in turn superseded by dwarf shrubs, typically Rhododendron ferrugineum (on acid soils) or Rhododendron hirsutum (on bones soils). Above this is the alpine meadow, and even higher, the vegetation becomes more and more thin. At these higher altitudes, the plants tend to form isolated cushions. In the Alps, several species of flowering plants have been recorded in a higher place 4,000 metres (13,125 ft), including Ranunculus glacialis, Androsace alpina, and Saxifraga biflora.

Fauna

These images are of species common to the Alps. They are virtually numerously found in the 15 percent of the Alps protected in parks and reserves.

Alpine Apollo Butterfly
Tall Salamander
Alpine Accentor
Alpine Chough
Capercaillie
Gilt Eagle
Ptarmigan
Tengmalm'due south Owl
Alpine Marmot
Chamois
Mountain Hare

References
ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

Answers.com. Alps Retrieved April 25, 2008.
Fowler, Brenda. 2000. Iceman: uncovering the life and times of a prehistoric man found in an alpine glacier. New York: Random House. ISBN 9780679431671
Hurni, Hans. 2001. Special issue: the Alps in Europe and the Southern Alps in New Zealand. Mountain research and development, v. 21, no. 4. Berne: International Mount Society.
Pfiffner, Othmar Adrian. 1997. Deep structure of the Swiss Alps: results of NRP 20. Basel: Birkhäuser Verlag. ISBN 9780817652548
Schmidt, Elsa T. 2007. Alps Microsoft Encarta Online Encyclopedia. Retrieved Apr 25, 2008.

External links

All links retrieved May 17, 2021.

(Italian) Images from the Alps

what term is given to the border between the central alps and the southern limestone alps?

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