The Highland weekly news. [volume] (Hillsborough [Hillsboro], Highland County, Ohio) 1853-1886, 1878-10-17
The Story OF the Alps.

Inc SCOry Oh Ine APPS
Geological students, says Cassell's
Magazine, have long been acquainted
with the fact that the Alps are, in spite
Of their great height, among the newest
of our mountain chains. The strata call
ed MiOcene have been elevated to great
heights along the shoulders of Alpine
mountains, although they were formed
along the bottom of extensive fresh
water lakes at a period comparatively
recent. Nor has the elevation of the
Alps been a sudden or cataclysmal Ope-
ration. Ithas been going on in fits and
starts, sometimes imperceptibly alter
ing the relative dip of strata, at others
pausing, and making up for the inter-
val of rest by occasional short stages Of
disquiet. The section across the Alps
made by the French geolOgist FaYre
shows us how strata which were once
deposited horizontally are now arranged
in numerous folds, the tops Of which
have been truncated by weather-actiOn.
Some Of the strata locally appear to be
reversed. The plutonic forces which
have produced this change from hori-
zOntality to every degree of perpendic-
ularity in the rocks have acted laterally
not vertically. Indeed the strata have
been simply packed into a smaller COM
pass by being crumpled up. And it is
to this 'crumpling" that we owe the
magnificent scenery Of the Alps.
ItwOuld seem as if this work were
not yet done, and as though the geoIog-
ical student were offered a chance Of
seeing the process in operation. At
Tarentaise, in the Savoy Alps, noun
tain nearly 5000 feet high has been re-
ported as "crumbling away" although
geOlOgists are of opinion that the exter-
nal dislOcation of stones and rubbish is
only the result of some plutonic change
affecting the position of the strata, af-
ter the manner to which we have re-
ferred. For nearly month the surface
Of the mountain has appeared to be in
a state of dismemberment. Great and
small masses of the ancient schists of
which the mountain is composed have
been rolling down its steep slopes like a
stony avalanche. Forests of pines have
slidden down, or been overwhelmed by
the debris which has been poured over
them. Huge rocks Of fifty cubic yards
size have been let loose from their an
cient moOrings, and rolled down dis
tance Of 5000 feet in the space Of half a
minute, leaping as much as 1000 and
1000 feet at bound, and finally getting
dashed to pieces at the bottom. The
fragments Of rock which have thus
been detached have accumulated at the
foot of the mountain of which not long
ago they formed part, and have there
formed cOnical hill 1000 feet in diam
eter at the base, and nearly 500 feet
across at the top. The noise produced
by the dislOcatiOn of the rOck-masses,
and the hurting of stones through the
air, is stated to have been terrific, and
we can readily understand that two vii
lagos in the neighbOrhoOd have suffered
very disastrOusly therefrOm. There
can be little doubt that the phenomenon
is due neither to the penetration Of
water into the stIata so as to loosen
them, nor to actual volcanic disturb
ance; but that it is one among the hun
dreds, if not thousands, Of the plutonic
changes which for ages have been
crumpling up the strata Of the Alpine
range.