Knowra Alps Alps The Alps are a major European mountain range extending across eight countries from France to Slovenia. Their high peaks, deep valleys, and glaciers shape regional climates, ecosystems, and transport routes.
Alpine orogeny : The mountain-building episode that formed the Alps and several neighboring ranges through the convergence of African and Eurasian plates. Plate convergence and continental collision raised the range over millions of years.
Mont Blanc : A mountain massif in the Alps on the France–Italy border, whose highest summit is Western Europe’s highest point. Its summit is the range’s best-known high point.
Alpine transit : The movement of people and goods across or through the Alps by road, rail, and mountain passes. Tunnels and passes connect European regions separated by the range.
Little Ice Age : A period of cooler climate, roughly from the fourteenth to the nineteenth centuries, when many European glaciers advanced. Its glacier advances affected Alpine settlements and left lasting landscape evidence.
European Alpine System : A broad system of mountain ranges formed during Alpine orogeny, extending from the Atlas Mountains to the Himalaya. The Alps are the western European section of this wider mountain system.
Matterhorn : A pyramidal mountain on the Switzerland–Italy border, rising to 4,478 metres. Its distinctive profile makes it an emblematic Alpine peak.
Gotthard Base Tunnel : A 57-kilometre railway tunnel beneath the Swiss Alps, opened to passenger and freight traffic in 2016. It carries major north–south rail traffic beneath the central Alps.
Climate change in the Alps : Observed and projected climatic shifts in the Alpine region, including rising temperatures and shrinking glaciers. Warming is altering snow cover, water availability, and mountain hazards.
Glacier : A persistent mass of ice that forms on land through accumulated snow and moves under its own weight. Alpine glaciers carved valleys and still reshape high mountain terrain.
Jungfrau-Aletsch : A Swiss Alpine region containing the Aletsch Glacier and several high peaks, designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Its glaciers and peaks exemplify the high Alpine landscape.
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