“The mountains are
calling and I must go” is a familiar line by preservationist Jon Muir to all
Americans. Muir, as much he adored the American west and wildlife, would have
also fallen in love with these, the alps of Switzerland. The story of the
mountains have an effect as grandeur as the carvings they create but yet have
much humble beginnings. In order to have a river, one must have a trickling
stream. This KISC Eco Blog will explore the mountains, snow and avalanches of
the Alps compared to that of my home in the western North America.
While they stand lifeless, all mountains start with
explosive beginnings. The Alps themselves were formed over 50 million years ago
when the African tectonic plate slammed into the Eurasian plate. Think of it as
two candy bars, Africa in this example being an old fashion Snickers and Europe
a Mars bar. Africa’s strong nuggety and peanut mass is not match for Europe’s
soft inner. As they collide, the Snickers apply more force and bend the Mars
bar northerly. That is why most of the North Faces in the Alps, such as the
Eiger, are notoriously steep. Unlike the candy bars though, the Eiger lacks a
sugery core, instead igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic rock. Much less
delicious indeed, but important in the start of our culinary allegory.
While the mountains, or candy bars, might differ
little from continent to continent, it is the snow that is truly the different
factor. Snow in this case is the sugar or frosting we will throw on top of our
candy bar. The white sugary mass in my native home of Interior Alaska is just
that, like sugar. Lacking lots of water in the snow crystals, the snow at home
is very dry and is much like pouring sugar on the Mars-Snickers collision.
Sugar snow does not bond together and creates sluff or loose snow avalanches,
similar to sand dunes. This snow creates smaller avalanches that are less
destructive. This differs from the snow in the Swiss Alps around Kandersteg
that create slab avalanches. Because of more water from the nearby
Mediterranean ocean, the snows in the Alps stick together like frosting. Also
like cooled frosting, its creates slabs, or chucks that break away at the top
of the mountain, bringing thousands of pounds of snow, ice, debris and none
happiness to the valleys below. These are much more large and violent but is
the reason why the Swiss protect with constant surveillance, snow fences, and
manually triggered avalanches. It may look pretty, but the frosting is not
delicious when it comes down on top of your head.
We
finally come towards the closing but the most important part of our mountain
and candy adventures. Glaciers.
Glaciers are moving
rivers of ice built up overtime over time by consolidating and melting snow.
Lets take those Mars and Snickers bars, and in the middle of the folds poor
lots of frosting. Heat and cool the frosting repeatedly, let gravity take
control and let bake for a few 1000 years. The glacier of frosting slowly start
to carve out the sides of valleys and into what are called U-shaped Valleys,
much the Gastental here in Kandersteg or Yosemite Valley in California, United
States.
This differs from
V-Shaped valleys that are carved out my rivers. Like poring milk down our candy
bars, it is less ground moved on the whole, like the Ueshental where our KISC
upper hut is located.
The similarities and differences between the KISC
mountains and that of my home are diverse yet on the whole not at all. I beg
all to pick up their rucksack, a good pair of boots and maybe a few Mars Bars,
and explore the mountain ecology around Kandersteg. They are something that
never visually dull with time, yet physically speaking, do. To sum, American
author Normal Maclean said that “eventually, all things merge into one, and a
river runs through it. The river was cut by the worlds great flood and runs
over the rocks from the basement of time. On some of those rocks are timeless
raindrops.” Timeless like the mountains in my life.
Tad (US)
STS Summer 2013
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