Geography of the Alps Essay

Introduction

The Alps are a related chain of mountains that surround the Mediterranean Sea in which they stretch from the Northern Africa as the Atlas Mountains then go into some parts of Southern Europe up to the Asian continent as the Himalayas Mountains. The Alps are the major type of mountains that dominate in the Europe continent. They extend to all sides of the continent covering about 11 Europe countries and form an 800-kilometer crescent-shaped feature from east to west. The Alps cover the northern, eastern, southern and western countries of the continent extending from the Mediterranean North Coast in France, Nice up to Vienna. Many European rivers start in these Alps such as River Rhone and Po. Considering the relief of the region as well as altitude and location of the mountain, they create a unique climatic condition that is so different to the west coast climates. They are then subdivided into two in accordance with their geographical locations. The Western Alps covers mostly the Alps found in France and Italy Mediterranean coast extending from the north shore to Switzerland's Lake Geneva areas. All rivers in this region that flow to the west ends up in Rhone while those flow to the east side ends up in river Po. Mercantour Massif and Mount Blac peaks are the highest peaks in these regions with a higher altitude of 15,771 feet above sea level. Most of their mountain peaks are crystalline or glacier-covered domes, which makes them a tourist attraction sites. The central Alps east cover sides of Mount Blanc on the Swizz-Italian border to the northern parts of Lake Como. It is in within this range that you can view a beautiful scenery of Alp peaks like the Dufourspitze, Weisshorn and Matterhorn peaks in which they all surpass 14, 000 feet high. More glacial lakes are also found in this central region. The Eastern Alps covers the Dolomites alps that are found in Italy, the Tauren Mountains that are found in Austria, Bavarian Alps in the southern parts of Germany the Julian Alps in Italy and Slovenia and the Ratische located in Switzerland. It is estimated that Switzerland covers 14% of the Alps, which is approximate to 192, 753 square km, therefore, Switzerland is considered the most alpine country since the Alps cover approximately 65% of its surface. The Swiss Alps are based on the south end of the Swiss Plateau stretching from the shores of Vevey in Lake Geneva extending to the shores of Lake Constance.

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Brief Description Of The Alps Geology

The Swiss Alpine landscape is as a result of a super continental break up that happened a million years ago; this process is also known as plate tectonic movements. Tectonic plates movement that causes the collision of Africa and European plates is what finally resulted in Alps formation. In the Mesozoic era, an ocean separated Europe from Africa known as the Tethys Sea. Within two major plate processes between the continental-continental crust and continental-sea crust, collisions resulted in the formation of the Swiss Alps and the Nappes. Nappes are alp-like features that run few kilometers wide but still contribute to the earth thickening. The first phase of cretaceous orogenesis brought about the formation of the Western and the Eastern Alps while the second phase happened at the tertiary period, led to the formation of the Central Alps. These collisions are what make the Alps referred to be examples of fold mountains. Fold Mountains are formed when external forces that cause two plates from opposite sides collide and then folds have formed that rise up in different shapes and sizes. One side of the plate sinks into the other plate while the other side rises up forming folds. Five different ice ages have contributed to reshaping the surrounding scenery and climate of the region.

Plate Tectonic Movements

In the Jurassic period, there were only two continents; Laurasia was the northern continent while Gondwana was the southern continent but in between them a large mass of salty water body that separated them known as the Tethys Sea. In the Cretaceous time, the collision of the African and European plates resulted to faults, block faulting as well as increased more deposits to the Tethys Seabed. In this process, volcanic activities took place and resulted to newly formed islands that in a real sense are mountains in the sea with great heights. Orogeny is the process by which Fold Mountains are formed. Two plates move towards each other; they push layers of the accumulated sediments in between them to move upwards into folds.

At the end of the Paleozoic era more than 350 million years ago; there were the Hercynian mountains in parts of Europe but coming to the Mesozoic era(63-230 million years ago) wind, water, and other forces managed to erode of these mountains via both mechanical and chemical methods. The eroded materials found their ways in rivers and were then flown southwards and later deposited to the sea, Tethys Sea (Schmid et.al., 1996). These sediments settled at the rock bottom of the ocean and due to natural acting ecology in which they were later transformed into limestone, shale, sandstone and clay components. These sediments arranged themselves horizontally in layers. These sediments accumulated in years and caused a rise in the sea level in which more water flooded in the eastern parts of the Pangea. When a sea separates two continents the sediments that settle at its basin are known as geosynclines. The enormous weight on the Tethys's Sea basin exerted by these sediments resulted in a push against the Eurasian plate by the northeastern movement of the African continent. This weight resulted in pressure that formed great folds where continental mass was breaking and sliding to form other gigantic features(Valentine, & Moores, 1970). Subduction is the concept that explains the disappearance of seas between continents. In the Jurassic period, small oceans formed that were connected with underground seas the most common seas during these processes being Piemont-Linguria Ocean and the Valais Ocean. The Piemont-Linguria Ocean separated Adria from Europe. Atlantic formed from opening from the south to the northeastern coasts of Africa. The Alps are also known as thrust belts since their main form of formation was through folding and thrusting (Pfiffner, Ellis& Beaumont, 2000). The soft-layered sediments of the ocean were compressed and folded, and slowly they started to thrust upwards. The oceanic basin of Tethys Sea was in the middle of two merging plates it was forced to shrink underneath the other plates. The Eurasian Plate was forced to sink and as a result, merged with the hot mantle while the African plate moved in the northeastern direction (Schmid et.al., 1996). However, these absorbed rocks and sediment will be released later to the earth surface via volcanic eruptions.

The first phase, which is also known as the Eo-alpine phase, was a result of the first collision where the northern Adriatic plate collided with the Eurasian plate. These eruptions would later form the Austria nappes as well as the Southern Alps. On the southern parts of Europe limestone deposited in seas also later formed the Helvetic nappes (Pfiffner, Ellis& Beaumont, 2000). Bundner slates in the Pennic nappes originates from sedimentation of anoxic clay that happened during this period in the deep seas of the Piemont-Linguria and Valais Oceans. The divergent movement of the African and European plates did not last for long due to the formation of the Atlantic Ocean that formed in between them.

Aftermath Of The Plate Tectonic Movements

Alpine glaciation reshaped the landscape of the region. Valleys were filled with ice 1 mile thick, and sometimes there is an overflow in the surrounding plains. Therefore, the valleys were more widened and deepened into U-shaped like basins hence later becoming amazing waterfalls like the Trummelbach and Staubach falls. Sand and gravel were left in the valley floors after the melting of ice in lakes. Glaciation contributed profoundly to a more favorable climate in this region since soils are more fertile and general the weather is much milder. Glaciation erosion is still happening up to date (Champagnac et al., 2007). Lake Neuchatel is the biggest lake that formed due to glaciation process that occurred in the Alps some 10,000 years ago. Glaciers came with granite boulders, barren rocks, and gravel that are still found scattered in the forest sectors of the Alps. The ice breaks due to the stress caused by the movement of the plates. These materials blocked ice that flowed in rivers, and an uplift or a fold occurs, excavations get filled with water, or the dammed water melts there forming arctic-like shaped lakes. 11other lakes in the Alps are created via this process, and these lakes are narrow and deep due to the glaciation. These lakes are the primary source of homestead use of water to lowland European habitats. Lake Lugano is among the glacial formed latest that borders Switzerland and the northern parts of Italy. With an area of 49 square kilometers of which three-quarters of its body lies in Switzerland while the southwestern parts are in Lombardy, Italy. It extends to a maximum width of 3 kilometers, and its deep end is approximated to be at 288 meters.

The Alps do not have a uniform temperature due to their difference in altitude and terrain. Mountain peaks have an effect on the prevailing winds that circulate air from the lower to upper regions. An air increase in mass will result in the same proportion loss of temperature. Most parts of the Northern side are wet while the opposite Southern sides are dryer since moisture is absorbed when the winds pass through the peaks. The Valais valley in Switzerland is an example of an arid part of the region. The windward sides experience high rainfalls of up to 2,600- 3,600 mm annually. Places with higher altitudes of above 1500meters may also experience snowfall especially starting on November going all the way up to April where the water begins to melt again.

The Alps have recently been attracting a lot of tourist as a summer or winter playground from all over the world. The beautiful scenery of the peaks, and also the experience of using the Passes making, participating in winter sports an average of 120 million tourists visiting the Alps every year. Passes are routes that were used by merchants and traders, and some are still present up to now taking you from the valley basins to the peaks or bridge-like structures that connect different hills that are far apart. For example, the Brenner Pass connects the Otzatal and the Zillertal Alps which are located near the Italian-Austrian border which have been in used by traders ever since the 14th century.Other passes were used during wartime like the Great St. Bernard Pass which was used Napoleon to move 40, 000 troops and the Mount Cenis Pass of which many soldiers used during the Italian peninsula war. Since the 19th century, more industries caved in these regions for their different interests. For example, in Austria at the Murz valley, an industry that used iron ore as one of its raw material attracted other industries to the region. Aluminum, Steel and also chemicals production companies came up. The presence of a continuous supply of water brings up hydro-electric power stations to be established to provide electricity to the surrounding companies. The rivers in the Alps run over more than 500 hydro-electric power plants. River rafting, watching the beautiful scenery and mountain climbing are among the best activities that a tourist can do when visiting the Alps. Everyone should be responsible for his own safety due to the random threats of avalanches, especially in winters. The physique of the place favors more of cattle or sheep rearing than farming due to the very harsh cold cl...