Abstract
The Aletsch region is situated in the UNESCO World Heritage Swiss Alps Jungfrau-Aletsch and must be reckoned with right to the classic and splendid high-mountain regions in the world. The region stretches from the rocky steppes with a Mediterranean character to the glaciers. It is a perfect example of the mountain and glacier’s formation. The basement of the region was formed by orogenic processes in the last approximately 500 million years. During the Ice Ages, the glaciers gave the shape of the contemporary landscape with characteristic forms, for example roches moutonnées and moraine deposits. Permafrost, frost weathering and rock mass movements are well presented and designed the landscape too. This rich diversity of glacial landscapes is a perfect example of the actual climatic change and geomorphological processes in high-mountain regions. The famous Grosser Aletschgletscher—the largest and longest glacier of the Alps—with the three world-famous peaks of Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau in the catchment lies in the core of the World Heritage site. Its history is well documented over the last 3500 years. The once famous Märjelensee, an ice-dammed lake at the edge of the Grosser Aletschgletscher, has shrunk as the glacier is retreating dramatically since the end of the Little Ice Age around 1860.
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Acknowledgements
Many thanks are due to Dr. A. Bauder (Versuchsanstalt für Wasserbau, Hydrologie und Glaziologie (VAW), ETH Zürich) and Dr. M. Fischer (Department of Geosciences, University of Fribourg) for the newest data from the glaciers in the Aletsch region. I dedicate this contribution to my youngest son Roberto who died much too early in October 2013 at the age of only 22. He accompanied me to the Grosser Aletschgletscher in 2011, when most of the photos for this chapter have been taken.
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Holzhauser, H. (2021). The Aletsch Region with the Majestic Grosser Aletschgletscher. In: Reynard, E. (eds) Landscapes and Landforms of Switzerland. World Geomorphological Landscapes. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-43203-4_14
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-43203-4_14
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