How Long Are The Alps

The Alps

The Alps are the youngest and highest mountain organization in Europe. They stretch beyond the western and southern function of the continent in a broad arc. The mountain range starts near the Mediterranean Body of wateron theborder between French republic and Italy. Then it curves n- and due east through northern Italy, Switzerland Liechtenstein, southern Germany, Republic of austria and Slovenia.

The Alps are nearly ane,000 km long, the broadest department over 260 km wide. The highest peak, Mont Blanc, situated on the border between France, Italian republic and Switzerland, rises 4807 meters to a higher place sea level . Other famous peaks are the Monte Rosa, the Matterhorn, the Großglockner and the Zugspitze.

The whole mountain range is divided into iii sections:

• The western Alps prevarication west of the Great St. Bernard Pass and include the highest mountains.
• The central Alps prevarication between the Slap-up St. Bernard and Lake Constance.
• The eastern Alps stretch east of Lake Constance into Austria, northern Italy, southern Germany and Slovenia.  They are the everyman department of the mountain range .

How the Alps were formed

Millions of years agone the area of today's Alps  was covered by a large bounding main that separated Europe and Africa. The southern land mass started moving northwards. This movement folded rock layers at the bottom of the bounding main. Heat and pressure transformed the rock and  pushed the fabric upwards . Today these regions are the highest parts of the Alps. Most of the newly formed rock is granite and gneiss, merely many ranges consist of limestone which also formed on the seabed.

During the Ice Historic period, which started about a million years ago, the Alps were covered with a thick blanket of snow. Glaciers moved downwards valleys and fabricated them wider and deeper. As they moved they took rock and other material with them, creating moraines. When glaciers started to cook water filled upwards backside these natural dams and created the tall lakes we know today.

The largest of these glaciers is the Aletsch in Switzerland which reaches a length of about 25 km. The longest glacier of the eastern Alps is the eight km long Pasterze, at the foot of the Großglockner.

The ice and snow of the alpine regions helped create the large rivers of today : the Rhine, Rhone, Danube and the Po.

The Aletsch Glacier in Switzerland - Jo Simon on Flickr

Climate

In general, the Alps take a highlands climate. College areas are colder than the valleys and they get more rainfall and snow because common cold air cannot agree as much moisture as warm air.

Sometimes warm dry foehn winds, blow downwards along the mountain sides. The air originates in the Mediterranean area, climbs over the southern Alps where  information technology loses almost all of its moisture and on the back side becomes so dry and warm that its melts the snow and water ice . This  often leads to a rise in temperature of up to 20 °C in the  colder valleys .

Plants and vegetation

Many  kinds of plants grow in the diverse areas of the Alps. The valleys take rich, greenish pastures with beech and oak trees growing in the lower regions. These trees are deciduous, which means  they lose their leaves each year.

The college areas are dominated by evergreens mainlyspruce, pine and fir trees. Above the tree line, which is located between 1700 and 2000 meters higher up sea level you tin find alpine meadows, mosses, shrubs and unique flowers similar the Edelweiss.  The highest parts of the Alps (regions above 2 800 metres) are coveredwith snowfall, ice and barren rock.

Animals

Animals living in alpine regions must become used to living in higher mount locations.

The ibex is a sturdy wild goat that lives above the tree line. tall marmots are  thick-bodied squirrels that hibernate in burrows. The chamois is a svelte animal that looks similar an antelope.

Alpine marmot - Dev Anubis

Economy

Farming is an important economic  activity in valleys and on the sunny sides of the lower slopes. Small family unit farms are very common in alpine areas. The principal crops are barley, oats and rye, equally well as corn and wheat. Farmers besides enhance cattle, goats and sheep. Dairy farms produce milk and other products for a large part of the population. Wine is grown in sunny areas of the southern Alps up to a body of water level of 600 meters.

Most of the energy comes from the hydroelectric power plants that operate either high up in the mountains or on rivers. These power stations produce plenty energy so that surpluses can be exported to other European countries.

In the 20th century tourism became one of the main sections of the economy. Skiing resorts have become popular throughout the region. Famous wintertime resorts include Grenoble and Chamonix (France), St. Moritz (Switzerland), Garmisch-Partenkirchen (Federal republic of germany) and Kitzbühel and the Arlberg in Austria . Numerous Olympic Games take as well taken place in the Alps.

Skiing resorts in the Alps

History and Transportation

People accept lived in the Alps for thousands of years. German cultures developed in the eastern Alps while Roman culture influenced the western part.

By 500 B.C. Celtic tribes controlled much of the region. In the 1st century B.C. the Romans took over . They built roads through alpine valleys and across mountain passes to link Rome with its northern provinces. These roads allowed the Romans to expand their influence to other parts of cardinal and western Europe. Throughout the Middle Ages these  routes  have been used by merchants , religious leaders and soldiers .

During the past two centuries railroads, tunnels and motorwayshave been built in order to connect the southern role of Europe with the due north. There are more than 40 natural passes in the Alps. The Brenner Pass (1374 metres) is the most widely used pass of the eastern Alps. It connectswestern Republic of austria and  northern  Italy with a major motorway and a railroad.

Building tunnels under the mountains belongs to the most difficult types ofstructure work. The St. Gotthard Road Tunnel has a length of 17km and is one of the longest motorway tunnels in the world . It is office of the St. Gotthard route, the most frequently used transit route through the primal Alps . The Neat St. Bernard tunnel was the first major motorwaytunnel to connect Italian republic and Switzerland. The Mont Blanc road tunnel links France and Italia, and the Arlberg tunnel is the longest in the eastern Alps, connecting the Tyrol with  Vorarlberg.

Climbing the Alps

Few people attempted to conquer the Alps in the early centuries . Many alpine peaks were first climbed during the mid 1800s when mountaineering became a popular sport. Today, professional guides use modern equipment to help people reach the highest peaks. Each year more than than 2,000 alpinists  ascendto the top of the Matterhorn which is considered to exist one of the nigh difficult mountains to climb.

In 1786 two Frenchmen became the first to reach the top of Mt. Blanc, Europe's highest meridian.

Ecology problems

In the by two centuries many changes have taken identify in the alpine region. Increased industrialisation and tourism have led to air and water pollution, slope erosion and the destruction of forests.Increased trade between European Union countries has led to growing route traffic.

The people of alpine valleys suffer from dust ,clay  and noise produced by traffic . It is one of the big aims of the European Union to become more than  traffic onto railroads in guild to reduce pollution and make the Alps a better identify to live and relax.

Related Topics

• Glaciers
• Rocky Mountains
• Avalanches
• Lack of Snow in the Alps
• Rock
• Skiing- A Popular Wintertime Sport
• Quantum for the World's Longest Tunnel

Text and Worksheets

• Text and Worksheets available at our shop

Words

• activity =something that you do
• aim = something that you really want to do
• alpinist = person who likes to climb mountains
• antelope = an beast with long horns that can run very fast
• arc = role of a curved line or circle
• ascend =to become up
• attempt = effort
• B.C. = Earlier Christ
• barley =a plant that you utilize to make food and booze
• arid = with nothing on it
• beech =big tree with a shine grey encompass
• blanket = cover, layer
• border = line between two countries
• wide = wide
• couch = a place under the ground that animals make to live or sleep
• cattle = cows on a farm that produce milk or meat
• century = a hundred years
• common = popular
• connect = link
• conquer =hither: climb upward to the pinnacle of
• consider = think, believe
• consist of = to exist made upwards of
• construction = building
• encompass =to form a layer over something
• create = make
• dairy farm = farm that makes and sells milk from its cows
• deciduous = trees that lose their leaves in wintertime
• develop = abound
• divide = dissever
• dominate = hither: stand out, overlook
• dust = dirt that is in the course of dry powder
• economical =about the economy
• economy =system of buying and selling things in a state
• either =ane of two things
• equipment = tools, machines , clothes that you lot need to practise a chore
• aggrandize = to make bigger
• fir =tree with leaves shaped like needles; they exercise non autumn off in wintertime
• fold = to move one part over another
• frequent = oftentimes
• glacier = large mass of ice that moves slowly down a mountain
• graceful = to move in a very prissy way
• granite and gneiss = hard rocks that are changed past estrus and pressure
• guide = person who leads tourists
• hide = to sleep the whole wintertime
• hydroelectric = to use water power to make electricity
• in general =on the whole
• include =contain, have
• increased = here : more than
• influence =power, control
• layer =cover, level
• lead—led = crusade
• length =how long something is
• limestone = rock that has calcium in information technology
• link = connect
• locate = to be found
• location = identify, area
• major = very important
• marmot = small animal with fur and short forepart legs  which lives under the ground
• meadow = field with wild grass and flowers
• Mediterranean = area between the southern part of Europe and the northern role of Africa
• melt = here: when snow and ice becomes water
• merchant = person who sells and buys things
• moisture = very, very small drops of water in the air
• moraine = pieces of stone and material that a glacier moves along
• moss = very pocket-size green plants that grow in a thick mass on copse or rock
• motorway = a very wide road for travelling fast over long distances
• mountain range = a group of mountains
• mountaineering = the sport of mount climbing
• motion =when something  moves
• numerous = many
• oak =a big tree that is common in northern countries
• oats =grain from which flour is made ; it is used in cooking or every bit nutrient for animals
• operate = work
• originate = comes from
• pasture = country or field covered with grass that cows or sheep tin can swallow
• pinnacle = the sharp pointed tiptop of a mountain
• elevation = the sharp pointed top of a mountain
• pino =a tall tree with long hard sharp leaves that practice not autumn off in winter
• pollution =when y'all make air, water or the footing muddy so information technology is unsafe for people
• popular = liked by a lot of people
• power station = a edifice where electricity is produced
• pressure level =weight, strength
• produce = brand
• raise = to look afterwards animals or grow plants so that they can be used every bit nutrient
• range = hither: group of mountains
• accomplish =become to
• reduce = lower
• relax = residue
• resort = place where people go for their holidays
• ascent = to get up or get higher
• rye = grain that is used for making dark staff of life
• sea level = the average tiptop of the sea; it is used to measure how loftier mountains and other places are
• seabed = land at the lesser of the sea
• section = part
• separate = dissever
• shrub = a modest bush
• situated = to be in a certain place
• gradient = side of a hill or mountain
• soldier = member of an army who fights in a war
• spruce =a tree that grows in northern countries and has short leaves shaped like needles
• stretch = become from one place to another
• sturdy = stiff
• suffer =here: to become worse considering something bad is happening
• surplus = more than what is needed
• take over = take control of
• throughout = in all of
• throughout = in the whole of ...
• transform = alter
• transit = organization of moving goods or people  from i place to another
• diverse = different
• widely = here: much, a lot

Source: https://www.english-online.at/geography/alps/alps-tallest-mountain-range-in-europe.htm

Posted by: backmanwhourpel.blogspot.com

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