Alps - Geography

Geography

The Alps are a crescent shaped geographic feature of central Europe that ranges in a 800 km (500 mi) arc from east to west and is 200 km (120 mi) in width. The mean height of the mountain peaks is 2.5 km (1.6 mi). The range stretches from the Mediterranean Sea north above the Po river basin, extending through France from Grenoble, eastward through mid and southern Switzerland. The range continues toward Vienna in Austria, and east to the Adriatic Sea and into Slovenia. To the south it dips into northern Italy and to the north extends to Bavaria in Germany. In areas like Chiasso, Switzerland, and Neuschwanstein, Bavaria, the demarkation between the mountain range and the flatlands are clear; in other places such as Geneva, the demarkation is less clear. The countries with the greatest alpine territory are Switzerland, France, Austria and Italy. The highest portion of the range extends from Mont Blanc in France, through the Bernese Oberland and to the Matterhorn in Switzerland; the peaks in the easterly portion of the range, in Austria and Slovenia, are smaller than those in the central and western portions.

The variances in nomenclature in the region spanned by the Alps makes classification of the mountains and subregions difficult, but a general classification is that of the Eastern Alps and Western Alps with the divide between the two occurring in eastern Switzerland according to geologist Stefan Schmid. In 2006, SOIUSA (Suddivisione Orografica Internazionale Unificata del Sistema Alpino), an Italian organization, proposed a new classification system for geologic and cartographic purposes. According to SOIUSA, the Alps can be subdivided into among others the Ligurian Alps, the Maritime Alps, the Cottian Alps, the Dauphiné Alps, the Graian Alps, the Pennine Alps, the Bernese Alps, the Lepontine Alps, the Glarus Alps, and the Appenzell Alps.

The highest peaks of the Western Alps and Eastern Alps, respectively, are Mont Blanc, at 4,810.45 m (15,780 ft) and Piz Bernina at 4,049 meters (13,284 ft). The second-highest peaks are Monte Rosa at 4,634 m (15,200 ft) and Ortler at 3,905 m (12,810 ft), respectively.

Series of lower mountain ranges run parallel to the main chain of the Alps, including the French Prealps in France and the Jura Mountains in Switzerland and France. The secondary chain of the Alps follows the watershed from the Mediterranean Sea to the Wienerwald, passing over many of the highest and most well-known peaks in the Alps. From the Colle di Cadibona to Col de Tende it runs westwards, before turning to the northwest and then, near the Colle della Maddalena, to the north. Upon reaching the Swiss border, the line of the main chain heads approximately east-northeast, a heading it follows until its end near Vienna.