Napf area
The Napf area - also Napfbergland - is 800 to 1406 m above sea level. M. high hill and mountain area in Switzerland , which is named after its highest mountain, the Napf and lies roughly in the middle between the cities of Bern and Lucerne . It is part of the Emmental Alps .
Geography and geology
The hill country has a circular plan and a diameter of 25 km. The Napfbergland is bounded on its northern side by a valley axis that stretches in a semicircle from Sumiswald via Huttwil and Willisau to Wolhusen . In the southeast the Napf area is separated from the Prealps by the Entlebuch . In the south-west, the Emmental and the Ilfis valley , a right tributary of the Emme , form the natural boundary. In the middle, the Napfbergland is crossed by a canton border from north to south : the western part belongs to the canton of Bern , the eastern part to the canton of Lucerne .
geology
The geological history of the Napfbergland is closely related to the folding of the Alps . After the uplift of the Alps experienced its strongest phase around 30 million years ago, the erosion of the relief increased significantly. Rivers transported the pebbles to the basin north of the Alps (today's Swiss plateau) and deposited them there. In those places where large rivers reached the basin, extensive alluvial cones , the so-called Nagelfluh fans , formed over time . The Nagelfluh is a rock consisting of rounded rocks of different sizes (transported by rivers). These lumps, so-called pebbles, are cemented together with a fine-grained binding agent that fills the cavities.
The first Nagelfluhfächer in the area of well developed within the geological period Aquitanium (lower Miocene , from 23.03 to 20.43 million years) and are here part of the layer sequence of the Lower Freshwater Molasse (to 22.5 million years) in the Central Plateau. In the following periods of the Miocene, the cup fan developed alongside the Hörnli fan to become the most important Nagelfluh fan on the northern edge of the Swiss Alps. The river system, which was very different then than it is today, deposited huge amounts of erosion material on the edge of the Alps. Due to large-scale tectonic subsidence, this happened around 22.5 to 16.3 million years ago in the area of a shallow sea, which is why the deposits are referred to as the upper sea molasses . Thereafter, uplift processes led to the retreat of the sea. During the long deposition period of the Upper Freshwater Molasse (around 16.3 to 5.3 million years ago) the cup fan continued to build up massively, so that a layer thickness of around 1500 m was finally reached for this period alone. Towards the end of the sedimentation period, the relocation of the river network meant that the bowl fan lost its function as a storage area. Therefore, the erosion soon had its effect here too.
The rock composition of the Napfbergland is derived from this genesis. The main part of the area consists of Molassenagelfluh of the Upper Freshwater Molasse; In deeper areas, especially on the western edge of the region, sediments of the upper sea molasses are also exposed. The rock shows a clear stratification. Deposition sequences with coarse Nagelfluh conglomerates, which originate from times of increased river activity and severe erosion, alternate with sandstones and marly layers. The layers dip with an average inclination of 4 to 8 ° to the northwest and north. The larger rock fragments are deposited first due to their weight, while finer grain sizes are transported longer by the water. Therefore, in the same sedimentation horizon, one finds coarser blocks of rock closer to the edge of the Alps than further north.
Surface shape
Even during the high stages of the Ice Ages , the central area of the Napfbergland was not ice-covered. Only on the northern slope of the Napf a few small Kar glaciers formed. The lack of ice cover is the reason for the characteristic, fluviatile topography of the Napf area. The ongoing effects of erosion created deeply indented valleys. The center is a ridge running more or less in a west-east direction over Geissgratfluh (1332 m above sea level), Farnli-Esel (1383 m above sea level), Höchänzi (1368 m above sea level), Napf ( 1408 m above sea level) and Hengst (1372 m above sea level) including a ridge running south-north from Höchänzi over Ober Scheidegg (1249 m above sea level) and Ahorn (1139 m above sea level) as the highest points in the mountainous region. From this central ridge, valleys (so-called ditches) run radially in all directions, which are separated from each other by narrow but high ridges with often very steep slopes. The main valleys receive an inflow from numerous, mostly short side valleys, which are also formed as deep and sometimes inaccessible trenches. Such characteristic trenches are the Hornbachgraben, the Fankhausgraben and the Fontannentäler. The height of the mountain ridges decreases almost continuously from the center towards the outside.
Because of this surface shape, the Napfbergland has a very dense network of waterways. The southern and western part is drained to the Emme , the north-western part to Langete , the northern part with Luthern and Enziwigger to Wigger and the eastern part with the source streams of the Fontanne to the Kleine Emme .
vegetation
Especially the core area of the Napfbergland is made up of extensive forests, with one above about 800 to 900 m above sea level. M. Fir-beech forests, including predominantly beech forests. Above all, the sometimes extremely steep slopes and the remote deep notch valleys are forested. Meadows and pastures predominate on the ridges and the slightly less sloping surfaces. Because the area was not glaciated during the Ice Ages, it could serve as a retreat for the alpine flora. Even today, why are Napfgebiet relic plants such as the alpine buttercup ( Ranunculus alpestris ), the Gegenblättrige saxifrage ( Saxifraga oppositifolia ), the Bart Schie ( Bartia alpina ), the Avens ( Dryas octopetala ) and the Alpen-Soldanelle ( Soldanella alpina encountered).
Cultural landscape
The Napfbergland is - if you disregard the villages in the valleys that span the entire area - a very sparsely populated region. The only closed villages in the Napf area are Wasen im Emmental , Eriswil , Ufhusen , Luthern , Hergiswil near Willisau , Menzberg , Romoos , Doppleschwand and Trub . Otherwise, the region is a typical scattered settlement area with various hamlets, which are mostly in the valleys, and numerous individual farms, which are widely scattered both in the valleys and on the ridges (harrows). These homesteads are often very remote and difficult to get to. The residents live from grass farming and livestock farming as well as from forestry and wood processing; There is arable farming only in favorable valleys and in the less strongly undulated areas of the northern Napfbergland. Until the 19th century, the Napf area was one of the main regions for cows .
The southern valleys of the Napf area have been opened up, cleared and made arable by monks from the Trub monastery since the 12th century . However, the actual settlement of the region did not begin until the late Middle Ages. Over time, charcoal burning developed, which meant that the area was more and more cleared. Because the stabilizing effect of the slopes by the trees was no longer available, the valleys and the villages of the lowlands were exposed to an increased risk of flooding, with the streams carrying large amounts of debris with them. The reforestation of large areas did not begin until the 20th century.
In the 18th and 19th centuries, gold was panned especially in the rivers leading east from the Napf to the Kleine Emme , but the yield never reached great proportions. The Napfbergland is a secondary deposit for gold that was brought here by the Miocene rivers from the Alps. Gold tinsel can still be found in the river gravel today.
The entire Napfbergland is listed in the Federal Inventory of Landscapes and Natural Monuments of National Importance (BLN). The southeastern part of the Napf region is part of the UNESCO - Biosphere Reserve Entlebuch. The area is a popular hiking region.
See also
literature
- Toni P. Labhart: Geology of Switzerland . Thun 1992 (5th edition 2001), Molasse structure p. 29 ISBN 3-7225-6760-2 and Geology of Switzerland , 8th edition, Bern 2009, ISBN 9783722501161 .
- Al Imfeld : How Noah's Ark got on the bowl. Childhood stories from the Lucerne hinterland . Rotpunktverlag, Zurich 2011
Web links
- Page no longer available , search in web archives: subject of federal inventory of landscapes and natural monuments of national importance (BLN) on the website of the Federal Office for the Environment FOEN
- Bowl on the Wanderland website
- Napf area landscape spaces website - www.napfgebiet.ch
Coordinates: 47 ° 0 ' N , 7 ° 54' E ; CH1903: 635.09 thousand / 205541
receipt
- ^ A b Ernst Höhne: Knaur's Lexicon for Mountain Friends / The Alps between Matterhorn and Lake Constance . Droemer Knaur, Munich 1987, ISBN 3-426-26223-1 , p. 196 .
- ↑ Highest point on maps of Switzerland (SwissTopo)
- ↑ " Stallion " as an expression of impetuous wildness describes a "wild mountain form" in the Alpine world. See Alfred Helfenstein: The name of the Pilatus area. Keller & Co AG, Lucerne 1982, ISBN 3-85766-004-X , p. 24 f.