Читать книгу The Karnischer Hohenweg. A 1-2 week trek on the Carnic Peace Trail: Austria and Italy онлайн

14 страница из 31

Some 350–400 million years ago, and after erosion had removed most of the mountains, a second sea (the Thetis Sea) covered the area for some 200 million years. This enabled the formation of incredibly thick coral atolls, the remains of which are today’s limestone mountains, including the Dolomites.

The final formation of the Alps began 200 million years ago, and here again the Carnic Alps are special. The mountains folded upwards and rolled northwards like waves breaking on a beach. (The geological term is ‘nappe’, from French nappe, a tablecloth, because of the way a tablecloth folds and crumples when it is pushed across a table.) With the waves breaking over the Periadriatic line, the layering of the rocks became more and more complicated. ‘Suddenly’ (in the geological timescale) old layers were sandwiched between younger ones, sometimes vertically, sometimes horizontally.

The Carnic Alps UNESCO Global Geopark is well resourced, with a visitor centre at Dellach and six geotrails – short walks featuring important geological features described with noticeboards. Four of these geotrails (Wolayersee, Plöckenpass, Zollnersee and Nassfeld) are close to the Karnischer Höhenweg. The Plöckenpass trail, near the World War I Open-air Museum, visits the Cellon avalanche gully, which features the world’s longest in situ rock strata timeline.