Aupa Falls
| Aupa Falls | |
|---|---|
| Data | |
| Height of fall | 129 m ¹⁾ or 45 m ²⁾ |
| height | 1363– 1234 m ¹⁾ or 1031- 986 m ²⁾ |
| width | see text |
| Medium slope | 49 ° ¹⁾ or 20 ° ²⁾ |
| Flow rate | 15 l / s ¹⁾ or 80 l / s ²⁾ |
| flow | Aupa ( Úpa ) |
| Bedrock | Porphyry granite , biotite |
| Characteristic | Cascade case ¹⁾²⁾ |
| Coordinates | 50 ° 44 ′ 8.9 ″ N , 15 ° 43 ′ 5 ″ O ¹⁾ 50 ° 43 ′ 47.2 ″ N , 15 ° 43 ′ 38.8 ″ O ²⁾
|
The Aupafälle are a total drop of 174 m, the highest waterfalls of the Giant Mountains .
location
The Aupafälle lie west of the Snow Mountain and north of Pec pod Sněžkou ( sneak ) in the eastern part of the mountain range in the zone I of the KRNAP - Nature Reserve thinking Krkonošský národní park . They are formed by the succession of two separate waterfalls that, while nature conservation reasons not directly accessible, but from a blue-marked trail that of sneak out through the giant reason ( Obri dul are good to see results).
Upper Aupafall ¹⁾
Even from a distance, three steps of almost the same size can be clearly seen. Above the fall zone ①, which has a slope of approx. 30 ° up to the edge of the fall. This is followed by the middle step ② with a gradient of up to 70 ° and finally the lower step ③, which has a maximum gradient of 60 °.
It is fed by the Aupa river . This has no actual source, but flows from many small streams at the eastern end of the Aupa high moor . Increased by erosion, these have eaten increasingly deeper and wider trenches and united to form a wide, 15-meter-deep V-shaped channel in the granite of the subsoil. At the end of this channel, the water rushes over the marked section of the valley of Aupakante ( Úpská hrana ) in 1363 meters altitude in the glacial cirque of the Upa pit , which marks the end of the giant ground. With a drop of 129 meters, it is the second highest individual waterfall in the Giant Mountains.
The flow rate and thus the width of the waterfall is very dependent on the season and the last rainfall and, especially in summer, the Upper Aupafall has very little water. The width also varies greatly depending on the height. At the beginning of the fall zone, there is a powerful stream 3–6, sometimes 8 meters wide, which, with increasing depth of fall, fans out into several, only 1–2 meters narrow beams. Due to its height, the body of water disintegrates strongly and takes on the character of a drip veil or trickle fall when the water flow is low.
At the foot of the wall, the water hits the stony bottom of the Aupa Gorge ( Úpská jáma ). Backwater occasionally creates smaller ponds with a diameter of about 1.5 meters, but these do not correspond to an actual stilling basin . The erosion caused by the impacting water and additional weathering processes of the surrounding rocks resulted in an unusually narrow cone of rubble with a gradient of up to 35 ° and about 0.5 km in length at the bottom of the Aupa pit .
Lower Aupafall ²⁾
The Lower Aupafall is about 1 km away, almost 400 meters below the upper fall, in a section where the young river shoots down a 160-meter-long rock slide and a series of cascades and cataracts, overcoming a height difference of 45 meters.
The mean inclination of the waterfall is 20 °. In the longitudinal profile, which takes into account the particularly high cascades with heights of fall of 6 meters in the upper part and 3 meters in the lower part, it can be seen that the steepest part of the entire section is around 33 °.
The five times larger flow rate than in the upper case is due to the also larger catchment area of 1.9 km². Nevertheless, the width of the lower fall is also very different and varies depending on the season, precipitation and height from 0.5 to 8, sometimes even up to 10 meters. The width of the two main arms is 4 to 5 meters at the steepest cascade step.
Unlike the Upper Aupafall, which shoots over a break edge, the Lower Aupafall formed at the icefall of the former Aupa Glacier. The so-called glacial erosion was decisive for this process . Furthermore , the excavation of the softer rock along the slope led to the individual pools and cascades . The change between very steep and very flat parts of the ground is also very typical for the valley floor formed by glaciers.
vegetation
The area around the upper waterfall was and is heavily shaped by avalanches , which fall here up to four times in winter and always carry large amounts of boulders, earth and peat and therefore prevent the growth of trees. The rock face near the splash zone is only covered by green algae , which stick to the rock with a slimy layer. Areas that are less exposed to the falling water are populated by mosses and brown algae, and tufts of grass defy the harsh conditions on rocky outcrops.
Although the lower waterfall is in line with the longest avalanche run in the Giant Mountains, avalanches rarely reach the valley floor (most recently in 1956). This area is more likely to be affected by mudslides ; Their rubble , rubble and earth material is reliably transported further down the valley by the water. Here, too, only algae and moss can withstand the flow speed of the water, but mountain coniferous forests are growing in the immediate vicinity .
tourism
The waterfalls are of little tourist importance. On the one hand, this is due to the fact that, with the exception of the time when the snowmelts at the beginning of May, they carry very little water, and on the other hand, because of the inaccessible location, which is not accessible via hiking trails.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Vlastimil Pilous, Horní Úpský vodopád ( Memento of the original from February 14, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ a b c Vlastimil Pilous, Dolní Úpský vodopád ( Memento of the original from February 14, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
