Cover image of: - Rocky Austria A brief Earth History of Austria

Rocky Austria

A brief Earth History of Austria

Ed.: Hans Georg Krenmayr

2000. 60 pages, 2 maps, 21x30cm, 410 g
Language: English

ArtNo. ES182025200, paperback

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Synopsis top ↑

Austria and the Alps — these are two words which are inseparable, although from a geological viewpoint two entirely different worlds meet here — Europe and Africa. Searching through the millions of years of the Earth's geological history, one realizes that the various rocks forming the Alps reflect many different turbulent scenarios; tropical coral reefs, ice-filled valleys, deep oceans, shallow tidal-shelf areas, lava spilling volcanoes — all occurred together with violent earth-quakes and drifting continents. This, and much more is involved in the scenario that will be revealed as we travel through time over the wide range of the Austrian countrvside.

Table of Contents top ↑

Rocky Austria - an alternative to a preface 7
Introduction 8
The geological landscape of Austria 10
Austria's oldest mountains 11
The Molasse Zone: The ground-down Alps 14
The Helvetic Unit: The southern margin of Old Europe 17
The Flysch Zone: Mud avalanches in the deep sea 19
The Calcareous Alps and the "Drauzug": A climbing tour on coral reefs 20
Graywacke Zone & Co: Ore rich and very old 23
The Penninic Unit: Ocean floors on mountain highs 24
The Crystalline Rocks of the Eastern Alps: from the Silvretta Mountains to the "Bucklige Welt" 26
The Periadriatic Lineament: A seam between the Northern and Southern Alps 29
The Southern Alps: Peculiar but related 31
Eternal rock? Everything flows!! 32
A sprint through the geological evolution of Austria 34
The Pre-Alpidic Era 35
In the shade ofold continents 35
Austria during the Lower Paleozoic 35
Variscan mountain building 36
The Alpidic Era 38
Water and land 38
The foundations of the Alps 38
The garland of corals of the Tethys 39
The beginning of the end of Pangaea 39
Yet another ocean 40
The new margin of Old Europe 40
Tethys under pressure 41
The end of Pangaea 41
Mountains emerge from the sea 42
Islands and deep sea trenches 42
Ambassador of the depths Collision of the continents 43
The birth of a high mountainrange 44
Beaches along the Alps 44
Scars in the face of the Alps 46
Fiery finale 48
... and icy epilogue 49
Appendix
Glossary 54
Museums of Earth History in Austria 58
Further reading 58
Source of illustrations 58