Monte San Giorgio
| Monte San Giorgio | ||
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 Monte San Giorgio with Brusino Arsizio (front) and Monte Generoso in the background |
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| height | 1097 m above sea level M. | |
| location |
Canton Ticino Switzerland
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| Mountains | Lugano Prealps | |
| Dominance | 3.38 km → Monte Generoso | |
| Notch height | 756 m ↓ Piamo Superiore | |
| Coordinates | 717 247 / 85796 | |
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| Monte San Giorgio | |
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UNESCO world heritage 
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| Monte San Giorgio (left) south of Lake Lugano, picture from the north |
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| National territory: |
Switzerland Italy
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| Type: | Natural heritage |
| Criteria : | viii |
| Reference No .: | 1090 |
| UNESCO region : | Europe and North America |
| History of enrollment | |
| Enrollment: | 2003 (session 27) |
| Extension: | 2010 |
The Monte San Giorgio is a mountain in Ticino in Switzerland . He is 1097 m above sea level. M. high and lies between the two southern arms of Lake Lugano . Monte San Giorgio is one of the world's most important sites for marine fossils from the Middle Triassic (245 to 230 million years ago). In 2003 the area around Monte San Giorgio was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO . In 2010 the World Heritage site was expanded to include the southern part belonging to Italy .
The pyramid-shaped mountain is heavily forested. The natural landscape is home to many rare plants. There are also various caves hidden in the mountain .
geology
The mountain rests on a base of crystalline gneiss basement . Layers of andesite ( rhyolite ) and tuff lie on top . This is followed by layers of sediment from the Triassic, including repeated dolomite and lime, and layers of bituminous oil shale . The layers drop to the south, so that the oldest rock emerges in the north on the lake shore.
A special feature is the enormous amount of well-preserved fossils that were found in particular in the 16-meter-thick border bitumen layer. 200 million years ago, the rocks of Monte San Giorgio formed a sea basin around 100 meters deep in a subtropical region. The water at the bottom must have been very low in oxygen, so that many vertebrate corpses were neither destroyed by scavengers nor by currents. The fossils that were found on Monte San Giorgio are therefore often completely preserved skeletons, which are of great importance for research due to their worldwide uniqueness and quality.
Today fossils of fish, reptiles and invertebrates such as insects - including some with a length of up to six meters and several hundred specimens of the ichthyosaur Mixosaurus - can be found on the mountain . The mountain, which has five layers that are unique in the world, is one of the most important sites for the Middle Triassic.
history
In the 12th century, the hermit Manfred von Riva lived on Monte San Giorgio.
In the first half of the 20th century, the bitumen layers (oil shale) were industrially mined and processed into oil or ointment ("Saurolo"), with pharmaceutical use. Marble was another important raw material that was mined. The last marble quarry in the municipality of Arzo closed in 2011.
From 1924 the University of Zurich carried out a series of scientific excavations under the direction of the paleontologist Bernhard Peyer and from 1956 by Emil Kuhn-Schnyder . These unearthed over 10,000 finds and many new genera were discovered. Some of them have local names; such as Helveticosaurus (named after Helvetier ), Ticinosuchus (named after the canton of Ticino ) or Ceresiosaurus (named after the Ceresio , the Italian name for Lake Lugano ).
In 1977, Monte San Giorgio entered the federal inventory of landscapes and natural monuments of national importance .
tourism
The Monte San Giorgio is now a popular destination for cyclists and hikers. A nature trail introduces visitors to the special features of the world heritage. The majority of the finds are located in the Paleontological Museum in Zurich . A selection of important finds as well as replicas are exhibited in the new fossil museum of Monte San Giorgio in Meride .
Fossil Museum of Monte San Giorgio in Meride
The fossil museum of Monte San Giorgio in Meride (Canton Ticino), rebuilt and expanded by the Ticino architect Mario Botta , was inaugurated on October 13, 2012. The structure shows a selection of fossilized animals and plants from the worldwide unique UNESCO World Heritage Site of Monte San Giorgio. A 2.5 meter long reconstruction of the land dinosaur Ticinosuchus welcomes visitors to the new fossil museum in the village center of Meride. It lived around 240 million years ago on the edge of a lively subtropical sea, at the same time as many other marine dinosaurs and fish that were adapted to aquatic life. The excellently preserved skeletons from the Central Triassic of Monte San Giorgio have made the "Mountain of the Dinosaurs" world famous as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Spread over four floors, the great diversity of living beings is presented that populated the sea and its coast in southern Ticino between 245 and 180 million years ago. Illustrations and models make this long-extinct world understandable to the public, the fossils of which have been excavated, prepared and scientifically described by Swiss and Italian experts since 1850.
Development
From the south via Mendrisio , the area of Monte San Giorgio can be reached by road. Another road leads from Riva San Vitale along the lake to Brusino Arsizio and on to Porto Ceresio in Italy. From Brusino there is a cable car to the viewing terrace of Serpiano ( 650 m above sea level ), where the road from Mendrisio ends. From here you have a very nice view of the branching out Lake Lugano.
literature
- Stefania Bianchi, Hans Rieber: Monte San Giorgio. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
Web links
- Fossil Museum of Monte San Giorgio in Meride
- UNESCO World Heritage from Monte San Giorgio
- Dinosaurs and fish from the Central Triassic of Monte San Giorgio (Unesco World Heritage)
- Kurt F. de Swaaf: Searching for fossils in the Alps - On the trail of the mysterious Triassic pike . Spiegel Online , February 17, 2009
- Federal inventory of landscapes of national importance
- Monte San Giorgio on ticinarte.ch
- Stefania Bianchi, Hans Rieber: Monte San Giorgio. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
- Monte San Giorgio on the ETHorama platform
Individual evidence
- ↑ Monte San Giorgio UNESCO World Heritage
- ↑ a b c Michael Szönyi: Geoland Südschweiz . vdf Hochschulverlag at the ETH Zurich, Zurich 2010, ISBN 978-3-7281-3281-9 ( excerpt from Google Books ).
- ↑ a b focal points of the exhibition. In: University of Zurich: Paleontological Institute and Museum. Retrieved October 14, 2012 .
- ↑ a b Peter Jankovsky: Ticino has its own dinosaur . In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung . Zurich October 12, 2012, p. 13 .
- ↑ Monte San Giorgio geological-paleontological trail on ticino.ch
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