Klus (valley)
A Klus (from the Latin clusa = enclosed space, see Klause (bottleneck) ) is a name for a transverse valley or breakthrough valley of an often larger river, a type of gorge with steep, rocky side walls, but with a relatively low gradient of the valley floor.
The term is mainly used in Switzerland for the Juraklusen, the transverse valleys in the Jura . The best known is the Schüssklus , but mainly under the name Taubenlochschlucht , in the Klus von Balsthal the once famous Swiss steelworks Von Roll are now largely unused and are reminiscent of the use of hydropower in the time of industrialization , which began in many Klusen. In the Jura the Klusen are important transport links between the large long valleys .
In the city of Zurich , too , the Hegibach-Klus, with former craft branches, gave what is now a residential area: Klusplatz .
Emergence
On the one hand, the gorges were created by the fact that a river flowed transversely to a ridge line that was tectonically building up through lift, thrust, folding etc. The erosion was able to keep up with the pace of the folding. This process is called antecedent .
The second variant is that a body of water breaks through a surface layer sideways (example: through a fracture system ). This creates a half gap . If this is now attacked backwards by the erosion or by the corrosion , a cross valley (Kluse) is created.