Mals Heath

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Mals Heath Malser haide.jpg
Mals Heath

The Mals Heath [1] [2] (German : Malser Haide) in South Tyrol, Italy, is one of the largest ancient landslides and one of the most remarkable landscape features in the Alps. It is located in the Upper Vinschgau where a broad pass (the Reschen Pass) crosses the main Alpine divide into the Inn Valley (Austria). It extends from Glurns via Laatsch, Schleis, and Burgeis up to Plawenn. On the southern part is the village of Mals. The height difference of the heath varies from 900 m (Glurns) to 1,760 m (Plawenner Alm). The landslide emerges from the small side valley of Plawenntal, and descends for 11 km to the head of Vinschgau proper. The volume of the debris fan is estimated at 1,650 million cubic metres. It had always been assumed to be an alluvial fan, built up by numerous floods and debris small flows. New research demonstrates that a lost mountain could have existed above the head of Plawenntal, with a summit at about 3,100m - the present highest peak on the perimeter being the Mittereck, 2,908 m. There are indications all around the perimeter of a catastrophic collapse, severing former ridges and valley heads (notably Vivanatal). The shape of the lost mountain can readily be reconstructed by projecting these truncated landforms until they meet up. The volume of the lost mountain (named Plawennspitz) is very close to that of Mals Heath. There is at present no evidence of when this event occurred, but probably soon after the last glacier melted, over 10,000 years ago. Similar events probably created large fans nearby at St. Valentin, and in the main Vinschgau, notably at Allitz-Laas (Gadriamure) where the lost mountain and vast debris cone are even larger. Other megafans in the Alps are likely to be catastrophic too (1). [3] The Mals Heath used to be a barren heath since it was so free draining. The debris fan dams a lake, Haidersee, which is now used as a source of irrigation water through a system of channels, and nearly all the heath is now cultivated and prosperous. The fan also displaces the main river, Adige, and the large tributary, Puni, to opposite sides of the valley. Disastrous floods still occur, destroying houses and even villages. The main road climbs the fan in broad zigzags, not the usual hairpins of an alpine pass, with several large wind turbines taking advantage of the smooth terrain and natural wind funnel.

German language West Germanic language

German is a West Germanic language that is mainly spoken in Central Europe. It is the most widely spoken and official or co-official language in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, South Tyrol (Italy), the German-speaking Community of Belgium, and Liechtenstein. It is also one of the three official languages of Luxembourg and a co-official language in the Opole Voivodeship in Poland. The languages which are most similar to German are the other members of the West Germanic language branch: Afrikaans, Dutch, English, the Frisian languages, Low German/Low Saxon, Luxembourgish, and Yiddish. There are also strong similarities in vocabulary with Danish, Norwegian and Swedish, although those belong to the North Germanic group. German is the second most widely spoken Germanic language, after English.

South Tyrol Autonomous province of Italy

South Tyrol is an autonomous province in northern Italy. It is one of the two autonomous provinces that make up the autonomous region of Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol. Its official trilingual denomination is Autonome Provinz Bozen – Südtirol in German, Provincia autonoma di Bolzano – Alto Adige in Italian and Provinzia autonoma de Bulsan – Südtirol in Ladin, reflecting the three main language groups to which its population belongs. The province is the northernmost of Italy, the second largest, with an area of 7,400 square kilometres (2,857 sq mi) and has a total population of 530,009 inhabitants as of 2018. Its capital and largest city is Bolzano.

Italy republic in Southern Europe

Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe. Located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, Italy shares open land borders with France, Switzerland, Austria, Slovenia and the enclaved microstates San Marino and Vatican City. Italy covers an area of 301,340 km2 (116,350 sq mi) and has a largely temperate seasonal and Mediterranean climate. With around 61 million inhabitants, it is the fourth-most populous EU member state and the most populous country in Southern Europe.

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Burgeis human settlement in Italy

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St. Valentin auf der Haide frazione of Italy

St. Valentin auf der Haide is a village in South Tyrol in the parish of Graun im Vinschgau. The village on the Reschen Pass lies at a height of 1,472 metres between the Haidersee and Reschensee on the scree slope of the Mals Heath. St. Valentin auf der Haide has about 800 inhabitants who predominantly earn a living from summer and winter tourism.

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References

  1. Planta, Joseph (1807). The History of the Helvetic Confederacy, Volume 2, 2nd ed., John Stockdale, London. p. 282.
  2. Loose, Rainer (1976). Siedlungsgenese des oberen Vintschgaus: Schichten und Elemente des Theresianischen Siedlungsgefüges einer südtiroler Passregion, Zentralausschuss für deutsche Landeskunde, Indiana University, p. 233. ISBN   978-3-8814-3001-2.
  3. Jarman D, Agliardi F, Crosta G (2011): Megafans and outsize fans from catastrophic slope failures in alpine glacial troughs: the Malser Haide and the Val Venosta cluster, Italy. Geological Society Special Publication 351, pp 253-278

Coordinates: 46°43′10″N10°32′39″E / 46.71944°N 10.54417°E / 46.71944; 10.54417

Geographic coordinate system Coordinate system

A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are often chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position and two or three of the numbers represent a horizontal position; alternatively, a geographic position may be expressed in a combined three-dimensional Cartesian vector. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation. To specify a location on a plane requires a map projection.