Alps on EARTH Magazine

Mountaintops get less lonely for alpine plants

Tue, 03 Jul 2018 11:08:50 -0400

It takes a hardy plant to live on top of a mountain, but new research shows that summits in the Alps are hosting more species of plants than ever before. Long-term botany surveys conducted on 302 European mountaintops over the past 145 years show that the variety of plant species living on the harsh summits has markedly increased over the last 10 years due to climate change.

Travels in Geology: Austria's Salzkammergut: World heritage preserved in salt

Tue, 18 Jul 2017 09:57:02 -0400

Stunning Alpine scenery and historic attractions abound in Austria's salt district, the Salzkammergut. Credit: Lon Abbott and Terri Cook.

In Austria’s famous salt district, the Salzkammergut, the long arc of European history, so palpable to North American visitors wherever they travel through Europe, reaches especially far back. Nestled between stunning Alpine peaks and sparkling lakes are numerous salt mines, including those at Hallstatt, which are the oldest known on Earth. Artifacts from the mine date back 7,000 years to the Neolithic, or New Stone Age, period. Surrounding Salzburg, the region’s hub and picturesque home to Mozart, a compact driving loop wends past these mines and a series of other captivating sites that evoke the region’s rich heritage fortuitously preserved in salt.

Benchmarks: February 23 – 24, 1999: Alpine Avalanches sweep through Austrian towns, killing dozens

Tue, 23 Aug 2016 14:11:30 -0400

A U.S. Army sergeant secures the door on a Blackhawk helicopter evacuating tourists from Galtür, Austria, on Feb. 25, 1999. Credit: Troy Darr, U.S. Army.

For skiers, snowboarders and other high-elevation winter adventurers, avalanches pose an ever-present, if difficult-to-anticipate, risk. But tourists and townspeople at the lower elevations and on the flatter terrain of mountain valleys are usually far from such threats. For the tiny Austrian towns of Galtür and Valzur — popular winter destinations for their ski trails and chalets — that was not the case in late February 1999.

Travels in Geology: Zermatt: Europe meets Africa in Switzerland's iconic Alps

Wed, 13 Jul 2016 09:53:22 -0400

Zermatt, Switzerland, is one of Europe’s premier tourist destinations, offering spectacular sightseeing, hiking and mountain climbing, as well as year-round skiing. The area’s popularity is rooted in its geology. Its high-grade metamorphic rocks and massive folds vividly narrate the story of the Alps’ formation, from the peregrinations of microcontinents during the breakup of Pangea to their assembly during the mighty Alpine Orogeny, the tectonic collision that raised the impressive mountain chain 40 million to 50 million years ago. More recently, massive glaciers sculpted this highland into today’s jagged peaks and deep valleys to create iconic glacial landscapes. Yet Zermatt’s scenic climax, one of the world’s most famous mountains — the Matterhorn — isn’t European at all; it was hewn from a slice of Africa.

On the trail of Hannibal's army - and elephants - in the Alps

Wed, 06 Jul 2016 17:18:33 -0400

In the third century B.C., during the Second Punic War between the Romans and Carthaginians, Carthaginian general Hannibal led a massive army over the Alps to invade Italy from the supposedly impenetrable north. It is one of the most famously brazen moves in military history, but the exact route that Hannibal’s army — which included tens of thousands of foot soldiers and cavalrymen, thousands of horses and nearly 40 elephants — took through the mountains has long been a mystery. Now, a team has found microbial evidence that a large number of horses crossed the Alps from France into Italy over the 3,000-meter Col de la Traversette pass around 218 B.C. But not everybody is convinced that the Traversette pass route matches detailed historical accounts of Hannibal’s journey.

How deep do the Alps go?

Thu, 07 Jan 2016 11:18:43 -0500

The mountains of the Dora Maira Massif, part of the Western Alps, surround the Maira Valley in northwestern Italy. Seismic data collected in the region suggests that, far below the massif, the buoyant continental crust of the Eurasian Plate is diving under the Adriatic Plate. Credit: Archenzo, CC BY-SA 3.0.

Continental crust was long thought to be too buoyant to subduct into the mantle, unlike denser oceanic crust, which descends into the mantle in many locations around the world. But the discovery of coesite — a type of silica formed at the extreme pressures present in subduction zones — in the Alps in 1984 challenged that long-held idea. Seismic evidence backing up claims that continental crust has indeed been subducted beneath the Alps has been scant, however, until now.

Sculpting the Alps

Fri, 04 Sep 2015 11:25:06 -0400

Above about 1,800 meters, the steepness of mountain slopes in the vicinity of the Mont Blanc Massif near Chamonix, France, tends to decrease with elevation. Credit: Lucas Joel.

Mountains typically get steeper the higher you climb. The European Alps are an exception: Beginning at altitudes between about 1,500 and 2,000 meters, most slopes in the range tend to become less steep with increased elevation. This is largely caused by ancient glaciers, which scoured away much of the rock from the tops of the Alps. However, the steepness of alpine slopes also decreases in areas beyond the reach of glaciers, although the reasons why have remained elusive. New research is revealing how tectonic and fluvial forces have also helped shape the Alps’ unusual topography.

On Hannibal's Trail: The clues are in the geology

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 06:41:58 -0500

The Col du Clapier-Savine Coche with Turin (upper left) off in the distance. Edward Boenig, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5 Generic

Standing at the summit of one of the Alps’ tallest mountain passes in the fall of 218 B.C., Hannibal peered into enemy territory: Italy’s Po River Valley. The panorama was reassuring. Hannibal’s plan — a sneak attack of the Romans on their own soil — was at last within reach. As his army trudged along a snow-covered path, Hannibal, Carthage’s greatest military leader, used the sight of Italy to encourage his ailing troops to keep going.