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Amsel Falls
The Amsel Falls (german: Amselfall) are a waterfall in Saxon Switzerland in East Germany, roughly a kilometre north of the famous Bastei crags. As the ''Grünbach'' stream passes through a particularly narrow, gorge-like section of the Amselgrund valley it plunges over the largest step in the river bed - roughly 10 m high - forming a wide spray of water that pours over the ''Amselloch'', a collapsed cave. The roof of this cave was made of sandstone blocks that have collapsed. In the ravine and in the cave potholes and kolks bear witness to the meltwaters that coursed down into the River Elbe during earlier ice ages. The original stream (first mentioned in 1548) flowed almost entirely through the cave, but in the 19th century it had been diverted over the top of the cave to the cascade site. The waterfall was additionally, like the Lichtenhain Waterfall, arranged to flow through a small, controllable weir wicket in order to produce a stream-like torrent, in order to enhance it ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Saxon Switzerland
Saxon Switzerland (german: Sächsische Schweiz) is a hilly climbing area and national park around the Elbe valley south-east of Dresden in Saxony, Germany. Together with the Bohemian Switzerland in the Czech Republic it forms the Elbe Sandstone Mountains. Saxon Switzerland alone has some 1,000 climbing peaks, as well as several hollows. The area is popular with local and international climbers. The administrative district for the area is Sächsische Schweiz-Osterzgebirge. The fortress of Königstein is a well-known landmark. Etymology The German name for Saxon Switzerland, ''Sächsische Schweiz'', appeared in the 18th century. Two Swiss artists, Adrian Zingg and Anton Graff, were appointed in 1766 to the Dresden Academy of Art. They felt the landscape was reminiscent of their homeland, the Swiss Jura, and reported in their exchange of letters on the difference between their homeland and "Saxon Switzerland". Previously, the Saxon part of the Elbe Sandstone Mountains h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bastei (rock)
The Bastei is a rock formation rising 194 metres above the Elbe River in the Elbe Sandstone Mountains of Germany. Reaching a height of 305 metres above sea level, the jagged rocks of the Bastei were formed by water erosion over one million years ago. They are situated near Rathen, not far from Pirna southeast of the city of Dresden, and are the major landmark of the Saxon Switzerland National Park. They are also part of a climbing and hiking area that extends over the borders into the Bohemian Switzerland (Czech Republic). The Bastei has been a tourist attraction for over 200 years. In 1824, a wooden bridge was constructed to link several rocks for the visitors. This bridge was replaced in 1851 by the present Bastei Bridge made of sandstone. The rock formations and vistas have inspired numerous artists, among them Caspar David Friedrich ("Felsenschlucht") The spa town of Rathen is the main base for visiting the Bastei; the town can be reached from Dresden by paddle steamer on the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Amselgrund
The Amselgrund ("Amsel Bottom") is the name given to the valley of the Grünbach stream in the heart of Saxon Switzerland in Eastern Germany. It runs from Niederrathen upstream to Rathewalde. The wild and romantic valley takes hikers through the Rathen rock basin with its bizarre rock formations. Its touristic high points are the lake of Amselsee and the Amsel Falls, that trickles over the grotto called the ''Amselloch''. The valley bottom that is densely wooded is surrounded by a backdrop of rocks. To the west tower the rocks of the ''Gansfelsen'', to the south the ''Feldsteine'' and the ''Türkenkopf'', and to the east rise the ''Honigsteine'' rocks with the striking Lokomotive. The middle of the valley bottom is dominated by the striking ''Talwächter''. Whilst the character of the valley profile in its upper reaches is rather ravine-like, between its entrance to the ''Schwedenlöcher'' and Niederrathen it is a steep valley. On the stream bed ripple marks may be seen. Above the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cave
A cave or cavern is a natural void in the ground, specifically a space large enough for a human to enter. Caves often form by the weathering of rock and often extend deep underground. The word ''cave'' can refer to smaller openings such as sea caves, rock shelters, and grottos, that extend a relatively short distance into the rock and they are called ''exogene'' caves. Caves which extend further underground than the opening is wide are called ''endogene'' caves. Speleology is the science of exploration and study of all aspects of caves and the cave environment. Visiting or exploring caves for recreation may be called ''caving'', ''potholing'', or ''spelunking''. Formation types The formation and development of caves is known as ''speleogenesis''; it can occur over the course of millions of years. Caves can range widely in size, and are formed by various geological processes. These may involve a combination of chemical processes, erosion by water, tectonic forces, microorgani ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sandstone
Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates) because they are the most resistant minerals to weathering processes at the Earth's surface. Like uncemented sand, sandstone may be any color due to impurities within the minerals, but the most common colors are tan, brown, yellow, red, grey, pink, white, and black. Since sandstone beds often form highly visible cliffs and other topographic features, certain colors of sandstone have been strongly identified with certain regions. Rock formations that are primarily composed of sandstone usually allow the percolation of water and other fluids and are porous enough to store large quantities, making them valuable aquifers and petroleum reservoirs. Quartz-bearing sandstone can be changed into quartzite through metamorphism, usually related to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ravine
A ravine is a landform that is narrower than a canyon and is often the product of streambank erosion.Definition of "ravine" at Ravines are typically classified as larger in scale than , although smaller than s. Ravines may also be called a cleuch, dell, ghout (), [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pothole
A pothole is a depression in a road surface, usually asphalt pavement, where traffic has removed broken pieces of the pavement. It is usually the result of water in the underlying soil structure and traffic passing over the affected area. Water first weakens the underlying soil; traffic then fatigues and breaks the poorly supported asphalt surface in the affected area. Continued traffic action ejects both asphalt and the underlying soil material to create a hole in the pavement. Formation According to the US Army Corps of Engineers's Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory, pothole formation requires two factors to be present at the same time: water and traffic. Water weakens the soil beneath the pavement while traffic applies the loads that stress the pavement past the breaking point. Potholes form progressively from fatigue of the road surface which can lead to a precursor failure pattern known as crocodile (or alligator) cracking. Eventually, chunks of pavement b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kolk (vortex)
A kolk (colc) is an underwater vortex created when rapidly rushing water passes an underwater obstacle in boundary areas of high shear. High-velocity gradients produce a violently rotating column of water, similar to a tornado. Kolks can pluck multiple-ton blocks of rock and transport them in suspension for thousands of metres. Kolks leave clear evidence in the form of plucked-bedrock pits, called rock-cut basins or kolk lakes and downstream deposits of gravel-supported blocks that show percussion but no rounding. Examples Kolks were first identified by the Dutch, who observed kolks hoisting several-ton blocks of riprap from dikes and transporting them away, suspended above the bottom. The Larrelt kolk near Emden appeared during the 1717 Christmas flood which broke through a long section of the dyke. The newly formed body of water measured roughly 500 × 100 m and was 25 m deep. In spite of the repair to the dyke, another breach occurred in 1721, which produced mo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
River Elbe
The Elbe (; cs, Labe ; nds, Ilv or ''Elv''; Upper and dsb, Łobjo) is one of the major rivers of Central Europe. It rises in the Giant Mountains of the northern Czech Republic before traversing much of Bohemia (western half of the Czech Republic), then Germany and flowing into the North Sea at Cuxhaven, northwest of Hamburg. Its total length is . The Elbe's major tributaries include the rivers Vltava, Saale, Havel, Mulde, Schwarze Elster, and Ohře. The Elbe river basin, comprising the Elbe and its tributaries, has a catchment area of , the twelfth largest in Europe. The basin spans four countries, however it lies almost entirely just in two of them, Germany (65.5%) and the Czech Republic (33.7%, covering about two thirds of the state's territory). Marginally, the basin stretches also to Austria (0.6%) and Poland (0.2%). The Elbe catchment area is inhabited by 24.4 million people, the biggest cities within are Berlin, Hamburg, Prague, Dresden and Leipzig. Etymology Firs ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ice Age
An ice age is a long period of reduction in the temperature of Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental and polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers. Earth's climate alternates between ice ages and greenhouse periods, during which there are no glaciers on the planet. Earth is currently in the Quaternary glaciation. Individual pulses of cold climate within an ice age are termed ''glacial periods'' (or, alternatively, ''glacials, glaciations, glacial stages, stadials, stades'', or colloquially, ''ice ages''), and intermittent warm periods within an ice age are called '' interglacials'' or ''interstadials''. In glaciology, ''ice age'' implies the presence of extensive ice sheets in both northern and southern hemispheres. By this definition, Earth is currently in an interglacial period—the Holocene. The amount of anthropogenic greenhouse gases emitted into Earth's oceans and atmosphere is predicted to prevent the next glacial period for th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lichtenhain Waterfall
The Lichtenhain Waterfall is a waterfall formed by the Lichtenhainer village brook and is situated in the Kirnitzsch Valley in the Saxon Switzerland of Germany. The village of Lichtenhain lies to the north of the waterfall, and is away on foot, but some away by road. William Lebrecht Götzinger, chronicler of the Saxon Switzerland, mentioned the waterfall in his 1812 work ''Schandau and its environments''. The original waterfall was not impressive enough for tourists, so the brook was dammed up by a pushable weir. Since the Kirnitzschtalbahn, a tramway linking the waterfall with Bad Schandau, was opened in 1898, hundreds of thousands of tourists have visited the waterfall. See also * Sebnitz * Mittelndorf * Bad Schandau Elevator The Bad Schandau Elevator is a passenger truss-tower elevator built in 1904 at Bad Schandau, a spa town in Saxony, Germany. The height of the elevator is , in an art nouveau-style steel framework tower, which has a diameter of at the ground an .. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Saxon Switzerland National Park
Saxon Switzerland National Park (german: Nationalpark Sächsische Schweiz), is a national park in the German Free State of Saxony, near the Saxon capital Dresden. It covers two areas of 93.5 km² (36.1 mi²) in the heart of the German part of the Elbe Sandstone Mountains, which is often called (the) Saxon Switzerland (german: Sächsische Schweiz). The national park adjoins Bohemian Switzerland National Park ( cz, České Švýcarsko) in the Czech Republic. Geography Location The National Park is situated in the centre of a natural area of almost 710 km² (274 mi²). This region, called Saxon Switzerland is cultivated by humans in many places. Smaller towns and villages such as Bad Schandau or Königstein in the district of Sächsische Schweiz are part of this region. The core area of the National Park has a quiescent area of 40% and is covered almost completely by woodland. The status of National Park, which grants the highest natural protection in Ge ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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