The Alps

The the Alps (in Italian Alpi , in German Alpen , in Slovenien Alpe ) are a chain of Montagne S which extends in Europe, recovering the northern border of the Italy, the south-east of the France, the Suisse, the Liechtenstein, the Austria, the south of the Germany and the Slovenia.

The Alps culminate with 4 810,90 meters (raised of September 2007), at the top of the Mont Blanc. One counts 82 major tops of more than 4.000 m of altitude (Swiss 48, Italy 38, France 24). The collars of mountain connecting the valleys or the countries often exceed the 2000 m of altitude. The Alps form a barrier of 1200 km between the Mediterranean and the Danube.

Etymology

The choronyme “the Alps” which defines the whole of the chain appears as of the first century before J-C. Some estimate that the origin is resulting from the Gallic appellative alpe him even resulting from a Celtic or pre-Celtic root alp which would come from albos meaning according to Delamarre “the luminous world, the world of in top”. Thus, there would be a strong religious connotation in this root. According to P.L. Rousset, the choronyme “the Alps”, finds its origin in the sum of very many high places containing the root alp (for example “mountain pasture”) and this through all the alpine countries. The explanation of this root posed already problems with the Roman historians and geographers (Strabon), who found it well beyond the Celtic world. The origin of the root alp would have strong correlations with the family of the altaïques languages (R. Loriot). The words “alp”, “alpaut” or “alpagut” have the direction top, high, powerful. If these “high places” took names whose origin would come from High-Asia, that would mean that there would have been migrations pre Indo-European born on the whole of the Alps and large a part of Western Europe.

History

The settlement of the alpine arc by the man is attested starting from the Paléolithique means (towards - 100000 years).

Climate

Population

The population on the whole of the alpine arc was of: 12295000 inhabitants in 2001.

Both plus big cities of the Alps are Grenoble (France) and Innsbruck (Austria).

Development policies durable

By counting Monaco, the alpine chain is divided between 8 countries. Thus before being recognized like “an alpine territory”, they is initially 8 small pieces of 8 quite different nations. The policies of environmental protections and sustainable development are thus very different according to the alpine territories. The CIPRA (International commission for the Protection of the Alps) founded in 1952 aims to benefit from the potentials of alpine space and to safeguard its cultural diversity and natural, by initiating a Sustainable development on multiple levels. It has work a long time so that an international legal tool can help with the durable installation of development policies on the whole of the Alps.

It will have been necessary 40 years so that this international treaty is born. In 1991, the ministers of environment for the alpine States sign alpine Convention. Today, the CIPRA accompanies the implementation by alpine Convention: it has an official statute of observant, takes part in the alpine Conferences and engages in various work groups.

Alpine convention is composed of several protocols treating of the following sets of themes: town and country planning and sustainable development, protection of the grounds, protection of nature and maintenance of the landscapes, mountain and hill farming, forests of mountain, tourism, transport, energy.

Other protocols are currently being studied.

Geography of the Alps

Geology of the Alps

See also: Geology of the Alps

The Alps belong to the alpine chains perished-téthysiennes, formed during the Mesozoic and the Cénozoïque, which extend from the the Maghreb to the the Far East. A part as of these assembly lines (perish-Mediterranean chains) is resulting from the opening, then of the closing of oceanic basins of the system téthysien. The existence of these orogene S is related on the convergence of the plates African and European and to the interposition of blocks or microplaques.

The Alps themselves extend on a thousand from kilometers, between Genoa and Vienna, with a width ranging between 100 and 400 kilometers.

One can subdivide them on geographical, geological and topological criteria, in three distinct parts: the Western Alps, which form an arc between the Mediterranean and the Valais, the central Alps, between Were worth and the Grisons (Eastern Suisse) and the Alps Eastern and southernmost, which are ensellent in the Plaine of Pannonia in the west of the Carpates.

The arc of the Western Alps is classically subdivided in two parts, separated by the crustal Chevauchement pennic: the external zone and internal zones. This major Chevauchement juxtaposes distinct paleogeographic units, having had stories Tectonique S and metamorphic different: broadly, the units of the external zone correspond to the proximales parts of the European margin, which were little shortened and little metamorphized at the time of the alpine history, whereas the internal units correspond to the more distal parts and the ocean floor, which underwent a metamorphism and a stronger shortening. The deformations in the Alps (observable thanks to the Seism S and with the Geodesy) are currently weak with very weak. However, of the rates of rising about 1mm/an are observable in Switzerland; comparable data are not available in France or Italy, but it is probable that vertical speeds are comparable. The origin of such a rising remains largely discussed today, the shortening in the Western Alps being weak with null.

Flora and fauna

Alpine fauna

to make The following species are in rather great number in protected spaces.

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