Summit corridor
In topography , geology and geomorphology, the summit corridor is the phenomenon that in many low and high mountain ranges the highest peaks are approximately at the same height , with a fluctuation range of ± 100 to 300 meters in altitude included. The level of these peaks themselves, the “highest floor” of a mountain range, is sometimes referred to as the summit corridor.
The term " Gipfelflur" was coined in 1919 by the geographer Albrecht Penck and has also found its way into specialist literature in other languages as Germanism . Murawski's Geological Dictionary defines the summit corridor as «an imaginary tangential surface that touches the highest independent peaks in a mountain range. It is independent of the geological structure. »
In the Eastern Alps this phenomenon is e.g. B. in the Lechquellengebirge and the Schladminger Tauern . Sometimes there are also two summit corridors, which has to do with different types of rock and their erosion .
The presence of summit corridors is often interpreted as an indication that land surfaces formerly lay on this level, from which valleys were formed by erosion . Such levels can be, for example, hull areas or former lava ceilings, at the height of which table mountains form. In this case, the height of the former surface of the earth specifies the highest level that peaks in this mountain range can reach.Therefore, such a storied structure is missing in the case of mountains formed by relatively rapid tectonic uplifts . If denudation continues for a longer period of time , the summit corridor can also come to lie below this former surface: Due to the same geological conditions and weather conditions, the summit heights remain constant relative to one another despite the loss of absolute height, so that the summit corridor is retained. Such a leveling is supported by isostasis effects . Likewise, the summit corridor can reach a higher level than the original one in the course of elevations.
Summit corridors can also descend in one direction, rarely two summit corridors of different heights can be close to each other.
literature
- Albert Heim : The summit corridor of the Alps . In: Naturforschende Gesellschaft in Zürich (Ed.): New Year's Gazette . No. 129 , 1927 ( ngzh.ch [accessed February 20, 2009]).
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Werner Bätzing: Small Alpine Lexicon: Environment, Economy, Culture . Beck, 1997, ISBN 3-406-42005-2 , pp. 112 ( Google Books [accessed February 20, 2009]).
- ↑ a b c d Heim, Die Gipfelflur der Alpen
- ↑ Alexander Stahr, Thomas Hartmann: Landscapes and landscape elements in the high mountains . Springer, 1999, ISBN 3-540-65278-7 , pp. 44 ( Google Books [accessed February 20, 2009]).
- ↑ Hans Murawski: Geological Dictionary. 7th and 11th editions, Enke-Verlag Stuttgart 1977 and Spektrum-Verlag 2004
- ↑ Christian Bläser: Geomorphology of the German Alpine high mountain area. (No longer available online.) April 2007, formerly in the original ; Retrieved February 20, 2009 . ( Page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Benjamin Künzler: The geology and geomorphology of the Eastern Himalayas. (No longer available online.) Formerly in the original ; Retrieved February 20, 2009 . ( Page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Jörg Georgi, Stefan Mannes: Collection of keywords geomorphology. Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg / Institute for Physical Geography, 1997, accessed on February 20, 2009 .
- ↑ Henri Termiere, Genevieve Termiere: erosion and sedimentation . Van Nostrand, 1963, p. 44 ( Internet Archives [accessed February 20, 2009]).
- ^ WW Hay: Tectonics and climate . In: Geologische Rundschau . No. 85 . Springer, 1996, p. 428 ( dvgu.ru [PDF; accessed February 20, 2009]). Tectonics and climate ( Memento of the original from April 28, 2005 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.
