Folded Jurassic
The Folded Jura occupies most of the Jura Mountains . It stretches across northern and northwestern Switzerland (cantons of Aargau , Solothurn , Basel-Landschaft , Zurich ), the Bernese Jura , the Neuchâtel Jura, the Vaud Jura and neighboring areas of France .
The Folded Jura is divided into the Chain Jura and the Jura of the Freiberg Mountains :
- The Chain Jura is characterized by several, mostly parallel chains, which were created by folding the sediments over anhydrite salt rocks of the Triassic (long-distance thrust). At its widest point, between Yverdon-les-Bains (CH) and Besançon (F), there are 16 chains next to each other. In the Chain Jura there are also the highest peaks of the Jura, the Crêt de la Neige , Le Reculet , La Dôle and Mont Tendre , all of which reach an altitude of around 1700 m . The average altitude is around 1100 m , without erosion the chain Jura would be around 2350 m high today .
- The Jura of the Freiberg Mountains (also called the Plateaujura , but not to be confused with the Table Jura ) is the second form of the Folded Jura. You can find slightly undulating plateaus there. It has long been debated how this form came about. Today it is believed that the landscape originally looked similar to the Chain Jura, but has been flattened much more because of the erosion.
During the unfolding of the mountain ranges and in some cases even later, a water network was created which, on the one hand, is oriented towards the valleys between the mountain ranges and, on the other hand , has created transverse gaps, so-called clusters , which are of great importance for traffic geography today.
A section of an international hiking trail runs over the striking mountain range on the south-eastern edge of the Jura .