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87-902: The SOIUSA is an interpretation by Marazzi of the terrain of the Alps aiming to replace the traditional way the Alps were partitioned in Italy, the Partizione delle Alpi , which was adopted in 1926 by the Italian National Geographic Committee ( Comitato Geografico Nazionale ) after the IX Italian Geographic Congress ( Congresso Geografico Italiano ). SOIUSA takes into account the European geographic literature normalizing and standardizing

174-460: A considerable proportion is permanently glaciated or snow-covered and is exposed to extremely cold conditions. There is, however, significant variation in precipitation with altitude. For example, the village of Chamonix below Mont Blanc is at an elevation of approximately 1,030 m (3,380 ft). It receives around 1,020 mm (40 in) of annual precipitation, whilst the Col du Midi, which

261-611: A crescent shaped geographic feature of central Europe that ranges in an 800 km (500 mi) arc (curved line) 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 basin, extending through France from Grenoble , and stretching eastward through mid and southern Switzerland. The range continues onward toward Vienna , Austria, and southeast to

348-462: A guide (or at least an experienced mountaineer), and all require proper equipment. All routes are long and arduous, involving delicate passages and the hazard of rockfall or avalanche. Climbers may also suffer altitude sickness , occasionally life-threatening, particularly if they are not properly acclimatised . A 1994 estimate suggests there had been 6,000 to 8,000 alpinist fatalities in total, more than on any other mountain. These numbers exclude

435-597: A large intrusion of granite (termed a batholith ) which was forced up through a basement layer of gneiss and mica schists during the Variscan mountain-forming event of the late Palaeozoic period. The summit of Mont Blanc is located at the point of contact of these two rock types. To the southwest, the granite contact is of a more intrusive nature, whereas to the northeast it changes to being more tectonic . The granites are mostly very-coarse grained, ranging in type from microgranites to porphyroid granites. The massif

522-743: A major commercial and military road between Western Europe and Italy. The pass was crossed by many troops on their way to the Italian peninsula. From Constantine I , Pepin the Short and Charlemagne to Henry IV , Napoléon and more recently the German Gebirgsjägers during World War II . Now the pass has been supplanted by the Fréjus Highway Tunnel (opened 1980) and Rail Tunnel (opened 1871). The Saint Gotthard Pass crosses from Central Switzerland to Ticino ; in 1882

609-657: A man was in 1788; the first ascent by a woman was in 1808. By the mid-1850s Swiss mountaineers had ascended most of the peaks and were eagerly sought as mountain guides. Edward Whymper reached the top of the Matterhorn in 1865 (after seven attempts), and in 1938 the last of the six great north faces of the Alps was climbed with the first ascent of the Eiger Nordwand (north face of the Eiger). Important geological concepts were established as naturalists began studying

696-646: A permanent laboratory exists inside a glacier under the Jungfraujoch , devoted exclusively to the study of Alpine glaciers. Mont Blanc Mont Blanc ( BrE : / ˌ m ɒ̃ ˈ b l ɒ̃ ( k )/ ; AmE : / ˌ m ɒ n ( t ) ˈ b l ɑː ŋ k / ) is the highest mountain in the Alps and Western Europe , and the highest mountain in Europe outside the Caucasus Mountains , rising 4,805.59 m (15,766 ft) above sea level, located on

783-611: A second interpretation places both summits, as well as that of Mont Blanc de Courmayeur (although much less clearly in the latter case), solely within France. NATO maps take data from the Italian national mapping agency, the Istituto Geografico Militare , which is based upon past treaties in force. In 1890, Pierre Janssen , an astronomer and the director of the Meudon astrophysical observatory, considered

870-604: A tunnel 1.6 km (1 mi) long was built along the route of the pass in the mid-19th century. With a summit of 2,469 m (8,100 ft), the Great St Bernard Pass is one of the highest in the Alps, crossing the Italian-Swiss border east of the Pennine Alps along the flanks of Mont Blanc. The pass was used by Napoleon Bonaparte to cross 40,000 troops in 1800. The Mont Cenis pass has been

957-646: Is sedimentary rock formed during mountain building. The Alpine orogeny occurred in ongoing cycles through to the Paleogene causing differences in folded structures, with a late-stage orogeny causing the development of the Jura Mountains . A series of tectonic events in the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous periods caused different paleogeographic regions. The Alps are subdivided by different lithology (rock composition) and nappe structures according to

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1044-642: Is approximately 65 hectares (160 acres) on Mont Blanc and ten hectares (25 acres) on Dôme du Goûter. In 1723, the Duke of Savoy, Victor Amadeus II , acquired the Kingdom of Sardinia . The resulting state of Sardinia was to become preeminent in the Italian unification . Citing the Treaty of Paris (1796), France claims that the historical border of Savoy and Piedmont diverged from the watershed line, fully encompassing

1131-418: Is at 3,500 m (11,500 ft) above sea level, receives significantly more, totalling 3,100 mm (122 in). However, at an even higher altitude (near the summit of Mont Blanc), precipitation is considerably less, with only around 1,100 mm (43 in) recorded, despite the latter measurements being taken at the height of 4,300 m (14,100 ft). The Mont Blanc was the highest mountain of

1218-470: Is being put forward as a potential World Heritage Site because of its uniqueness and cultural importance considered the birthplace and symbol of modern mountaineering. It would require the three governments of Italy, France and Switzerland to request UNESCO for it to be listed. Mont Blanc is one of the most visited tourist destinations in the world. For this reason, some view it as threatened. Pro-Mont Blanc (an international collective of associations for

1305-407: Is greatly influenced by altitude. Being the highest part of the Alps, Mont Blanc and surrounding mountains can create their own weather patterns. Temperatures drop as the mountains gain in height, and the summit of Mont Blanc is a permanent ice cap, with temperatures around −20 °C (−4 °F). The summit is also prone to strong winds and sudden weather changes. Because of its great overall height,

1392-503: Is of continental European origin, above which are stacked marine sediment nappes, topped off by nappes derived from the African plate. The Matterhorn is an example of the ongoing orogeny and shows evidence of great folding. The tip of the mountain consists of gneisses from the African plate; the base of the peak, below the glaciated area, consists of European basement rock. The sequence of Tethyan marine sediments and their oceanic basement

1479-624: Is sandwiched between rock derived from the African and European plates. The core regions of the Alpine orogenic belt have been folded and fractured in such a manner that erosion produced the characteristic steep vertical peaks of the Swiss Alps that rise seemingly straight out of the foreland areas. Peaks such as Mont Blanc, the Matterhorn, and high peaks in the Pennine Alps, the Briançonnais, and Hohe Tauern consist of layers of rock from

1566-528: Is the highest mountain in the Alps. The Alpine region area contains 128 peaks higher than 4,000 m (13,000 ft) . The altitude and size of the range affect the climate in Europe; in the mountains, precipitation levels vary greatly and climatic conditions consist of distinct zones. Wildlife such as ibex live in the higher peaks to elevations of 3,400 m (11,155 ft), and plants such as edelweiss grow in rocky areas in lower elevations as well as in higher elevations. Evidence of human habitation in

1653-470: Is tilted in a north-westerly direction and was cut by near-vertical recurrent faults lying in a north–south direction during the Variscan orogeny. Further faulting with shear zones subsequently occurred during the later Alpine orogeny . Repeated tectonic phases have caused breakup of the rock in multiple directions and in overlapping planes. Finally, past and current glaciation caused significant sculpting of

1740-542: The 2003 heatwave in Europe , a team of scientists remeasured the height on 6 and 7 September. The team was made up of the glaciologist Luc Moreau, two surveyors from the GPS Company, three people from the IGN , seven expert surveyors, four mountain guides from Chamonix and Saint-Gervais and four students from various institutes in France. This team noted that the elevation was 4,808.45 m (15,775 ft 9 in), and

1827-534: The Adriatic Sea and Slovenia . To the south it dips into northern Italy and to the north extends to the southern border of Bavaria in Germany. In areas like Chiasso , Switzerland, and Allgäu , Bavaria, the demarcation between the mountain range and the flatlands are clear; in other places such as Geneva , the demarcation is less clear. The Alps are found in the following countries: Austria (28.7% of

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1914-915: 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. The northeast end of the Alpine arc, directly on the Danube , which flows into the Black Sea, is the Leopoldsberg near Vienna. In contrast, the southeastern part of the Alps ends on the Adriatic Sea in the area around Trieste towards Duino and Barcola . The Alps have been crossed for war and commerce, and by pilgrims, students and tourists. Crossing routes by road, train, or foot are known as passes , and usually consist of depressions in

2001-659: The Franco-Italian border . It is the second-most prominent mountain in Europe, after Mount Elbrus , and the 11th most prominent mountain in the world. It gives its name to the Mont Blanc massif , which straddles parts of France, Italy and Switzerland. Mont Blanc's summit lies on the watershed line between the valleys of Ferret and Veny in Italy , and the valleys of Montjoie, and Arve in France . Ownership of

2088-705: The Frankish Empire under Charlemagne and the highest mountain of the Holy Roman Empire until 1792. In 1760, Swiss naturalist Horace-Bénédict de Saussure began to go to Chamonix to observe Mont Blanc. He tried to summit it with the Courmayeur mountain guide Jean-Laurent Jordaney, a native of Pré-Saint-Didier , who accompanied De Saussure since 1774 on the Miage Glacier and Mont Crammont. The first recorded ascent of Mont Blanc (at

2175-511: The Gotthard Base Tunnel , was opened, which connects Erstfeld in canton of Uri with Bodio in canton of Ticino by two single tubes of 57.1 km (35.5 mi). It is the first tunnel that traverses the Alps on a flat route. From 11 December 2016, it has been part of the regular railway timetable and used hourly as standard ride between Basel / Lucerne / Zürich and Bellinzona / Lugano / Milan . The highest pass in

2262-607: The Oxford English Dictionary , the Latin Alpes might derive from a pre-Indo-European word * alb "hill"; "Albania" is a related derivation. Albania, a name not native to the region known as the country of Albania , has been used as a name for several mountainous areas across Europe. In Roman times , "Albania" was a name for the eastern Caucasus , while in the English languages "Albania" (or "Albany")

2349-764: The Pangaean supercontinent consisted of a single tectonic plate ; it broke into separate plates during the Mesozoic Era and the Tethys sea developed between Laurasia and Gondwana during the Jurassic Period. The Tethys was later squeezed between colliding plates causing the formation of mountain ranges called the Alpide belt , from Gibraltar through the Himalayas to Indonesia —a process that began at

2436-580: The Pannonian Basin . The mountains were formed over tens of millions of years as the African and Eurasian tectonic plates collided. Extreme shortening caused by the event resulted in marine sedimentary rocks rising by thrusting and folding into high mountain peaks such as Mont Blanc and the Matterhorn . Mont Blanc spans the French–Italian border, and at 4,809 m (15,778 ft)

2523-466: The Romanticists , followed by the golden age of alpinism as mountaineers began to ascend the peaks of the Alps. The Alpine region has a strong cultural identity. Traditional practices such as farming, cheesemaking, and woodworking still thrive in Alpine villages. However, the tourist industry began to grow early in the 20th century and expanded significantly after World War II, eventually becoming

2610-590: The Savoyard state . The 1860 act is still legally valid for both the French and Italian governments. Italy claims, that the border was moved by France in 1865, when surveys carried out by a cartographer of the French army, Captain JJ Mieulet, incorporated the summit into French territory, making the state border deviate from the watershed line, and giving rise to the differences with the maps published in Italy in

2697-736: The Simplon Pass , and the Stelvio Pass . Crossing the Italian-Austrian border, the Brenner Pass separates the Ötztal Alps and Zillertal Alps and has been in use as a trading route since the 14th century. The lowest of the Alpine passes at 985 m (3,232 ft), the Semmering crosses from Lower Austria to Styria ; since the 12th century when a hospice was built there, it has seen continuous use. A railroad with

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2784-492: The landscape into its present-day form. The first systematic account of the minerals of the Mont Blanc area was published in 1873 by Venance Payot . His list, entitled "Statistique minéralogique des environs du Mt-Blanc", catalogued 90 mineral types although it also included those present only as very small components of rocks. If these are excluded, it is known today that at least 68 separate mineral species occur across

2871-431: The "father" of India's nuclear programme. In 1946, a drilling project was initiated to carve a tunnel through the mountain. The Mont Blanc tunnel would connect Chamonix , France, and Courmayeur , Italy, and become one of the major transalpine transport routes between the two countries. In 1965, the tunnel opened to vehicle traffic with a length of 11,611 metres (7.215 mi). In 1999, a transport truck caught fire in

2958-563: The 15 km-long (9.3 mi) Saint Gotthard Railway Tunnel was opened connecting Lucerne in Switzerland, with Milan in Italy. 98 years later followed Gotthard Road Tunnel (16.9 km (10.5 mi) long) connecting the A2 motorway in Göschenen on the north side with Airolo on the south side, exactly like the railway tunnel. On 1 June 2016 the world's longest railway tunnel,

3045-664: The 20th century Robert Parker wrote a well-known work about the rock crystals of the Swiss Alps; at the same period a commission was established to control and standardize the naming of Alpine minerals. In the Miocene Epoch the mountains underwent severe erosion because of glaciation, which was noted in the mid-19th century by naturalist Louis Agassiz who presented a paper proclaiming the Alps were covered in ice at various intervals—a theory he formed when studying rocks near his Neuchâtel home which he believed originated to

3132-691: The 29 "four-thousanders" with at least 300 m (984 ft) of prominence. While Mont Blanc was first climbed in 1786 and the Jungfrau in 1811, most of the Alpine four-thousanders were climbed during the second half of the 19th century, notably Piz Bernina (1850), the Dom (1858), the Grand Combin (1859), the Weisshorn (1861) and the Barre des Écrins (1864); the ascent of the Matterhorn in 1865 marked

3219-486: The Alpine region. The cinnabar deposits in Slovenia are a notable source of cinnabar pigments. Alpine crystals have been studied and collected for hundreds of years and began to be classified in the 18th century. Leonhard Euler studied the shapes of crystals, and by the 19th-century crystal hunting was common in Alpine regions. David Friedrich Wiser amassed a collection of 8000 crystals that he studied and documented. In

3306-708: The Alps are difficult to quantify and likely to vary significantly in space and time. The Alps are a source of minerals that have been mined for thousands of years. In the 8th to 6th centuries, BC during the Hallstatt culture , Celtic tribes mined copper; later the Romans mined gold for coins in the Bad Gastein area. Erzberg in Styria furnishes high-quality iron ore for the steel industry. Crystals, such as cinnabar , amethyst , and quartz , are found throughout much of

3393-771: The Alps goes back to the Palaeolithic era. A mummified man ("Ötzi") , determined to be 5,000 years old, was discovered on a glacier at the Austrian–Italian border in 1991. By the 6th century BC, the Celtic La Tène culture was well established. Hannibal notably crossed the Alps with a herd of elephants, and the Romans had settlements in the region. In 1800, Napoleon crossed one of the mountain passes with an army of 40,000. The 18th and 19th centuries saw an influx of naturalists, writers, and artists, in particular,

3480-636: The Alps, including those on Mont Blanc. For example, in 2015, the Grand Mulets route, previously popular in the 20th century, was blocked by virtually impenetrable crevasse fields, and the Gouter Hut was closed by municipal decree for some days because of a very high rockfall danger, with some stranded climbers evacuated by helicopter. In 2016 a crevasse opened at high altitude, also indicating previously unobserved glacial movements. The new crevasse forms an obstacle to be scaled by climbing parties on

3567-434: The Austroalpine peaks underwent an event in the Cretaceous Period, the two areas show distinct differences in nappe formations. Flysch deposits in the Southern Alps of Lombardy probably occurred in the Cretaceous or later. Peaks in France, Italy and Switzerland lie in the "Houillière zone", which consists of basement with sediments from the Mesozoic Era. High "massifs" with external sedimentary cover are more common in

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3654-402: The Eastern and South-Western Alps. The underlying mechanisms that jointly drive the present-day uplift pattern are the isostatic rebound due to the melting of the last glacial maximum ice-cap or long-term erosion, detachment of the Western Alpine subducting slab, mantle convection as well as ongoing horizontal convergence between Africa and Europe, but their relative contributions to the uplift of

3741-406: The Eiffel project was abandoned. Despite this, the observatory was built in 1893. During the cold wave of January 1893, a temperature of −43 °C (−45 °F) was recorded on Mont Blanc, being the lowest ever recorded there. Levers attached to the ice supported the observatory. This worked to some extent until 1906, when the building started leaning heavily. The movement of the levers corrected

3828-462: The Greek goddess Alphito , whose name is related to alphita , the "white flour"; alphos , a dull white leprosy; and finally the Proto-Indo-European word *albʰós . Similarly, the river god Alpheus is also supposed to derive from the Greek alphos and means whitish. In his commentary on the Aeneid of Virgil , the late fourth-century grammarian Maurus Servius Honoratus says that all high mountains are called Alpes by Celts. According to

3915-481: The Western Alps and were affected by Neogene Period thin-skinned thrusting whereas the Eastern Alps have comparatively few high peaked massifs. Similarly the peaks in eastern Switzerland extending to western Austria (Helvetic nappes) consist of thin-skinned sedimentary folding that detached from former basement rock. In simple terms, the structure of the Alps consists of layers of rock of European, African, and oceanic (Tethyan) origin. The bottom nappe structure

4002-525: The alps is the Col de l'Iseran in Savoy (France) at 2,770 m (9,088 ft), followed by the Stelvio Pass in northern Italy at 2,756 m (9,042 ft); the road was built in the 1820s. The Union Internationale des Associations d'Alpinisme (UIAA) has defined a list of 82 "official" Alpine summits that reach at least 4,000 m (13,123 ft). The list includes not only mountains, but also subpeaks with little prominence that are considered important mountaineering objectives. Below are listed

4089-422: The altitude. From l' Aiguille du Midi (where the cable car stops), Mont Blanc seems quite close, being 1,000 m (3,300 ft) higher. But while the peak looks deceptively close, the La Voie des 3 Monts route (known to be more technical and challenging than other more commonly used routes) requires more ascent over two other 4,000 m (13,000 ft) mountains, Mont Blanc du Tacul and Mont Maudit , before

4176-457: The annexation of Savoy (following the French neutrality for the plebiscites held in Tuscany, Modena, Parma and Romagna to join the Kingdom of Sardinia, against the Pope's will). A demarcation agreement, signed on 7 March 1861, defined the new border. With the formation of Italy, for the first time, Mont Blanc was located on the border of France and Italy, along the old border between the department of Savoy and that of Piedmont, formerly belonging to

4263-744: The central and western portions. The variances in nomenclature in the region spanned by the Alps make 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, near the Splügen Pass . The highest peaks of the Western Alps and Eastern Alps, respectively, are Mont Blanc, at 4,810 m (15,780 ft), and Piz Bernina , at 4,049 m (13,284 ft). The second-highest major peaks are Monte Rosa , at 4,634 m (15,203 ft), and Ortler , at 3,905 m (12,810 ft), respectively. A series of lower mountain ranges run parallel to

4350-402: The construction of an observatory at the summit of Mont Blanc. Gustave Eiffel agreed to take on the project, provided he could build on a rock foundation if found at a depth of less than twelve metres (39 ft) below the ice. In 1891, the Swiss surveyor Imfeld dug two 23-metre (75 ft) horizontal tunnels twelve metres (39 ft) below the ice summit but found nothing solid. Consequently,

4437-579: The different national classification systems in use. It was publicly presented in a lecture organized by the Italian Alpine Club 's Milan conference of 6 April 2006, following the publication of Marazzi's book. The SOIUSA introduces the bipartition of the Alpine System (Western Alps and Eastern Alps) replacing the old tripartite division (Western Alps, Central Alps and Eastern Alps) by a multilevel pyramidal hierarchy according to identical scales and rules. Mountain groups higher level : fractionated with morphological and altimetric benchmark taking into account

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4524-457: The disaster. The summit of Mont Blanc is a thick, perennial ice-and-snow dome whose thickness varies. Therefore, no exact and permanent summit elevation can be determined, though accurate measurements have been made on specific dates. Its official elevation was 4,807 m (15,771 ft) for a long time. In 2002, the IGN and expert surveyors, with the aid of GPS technology, measured it to be 4,807.40 m (15,772 ft 4 in). After

4611-424: The dominant industry by the end of the century. The Winter Olympic Games have been hosted in the Swiss, French, Italian, Austrian and German Alps. As of 2010, the region is home to 14 million people and has 120 million annual visitors. The English word Alps comes from the Latin Alpes . The Latin word Alpes could possibly come from the adjective albus ("white"), or could possibly come from

4698-404: The end of the Mesozoic and continues into the present. The formation of the Alps was a segment of this orogenic process, caused by the collision between the African and the Eurasian plates that began in the late Cretaceous Period. Under extreme compressive stresses and pressure, marine sedimentary rocks were uplifted, forming characteristic recumbent folds , and thrust faults . As

4785-495: The end of the golden age of alpinism . Karl Blodig (1859–1956) was among the first to successfully climb all the major 4,000 m peaks. He completed his series of ascents in 1911. Many of the big Alpine three-thousanders were climbed in the early 19th century, notably the Grossglockner (1800) and the Ortler (1804), although some of them were climbed only much later, such at Mont Pelvoux (1848), Monte Viso (1861) and La Meije (1877). The first British Mont Blanc ascent by

4872-449: The especially risky " Goûter couloir , on the normal route on Mont Blanc" and necessary rescue operations found that, between 1990 and 2011, there were 74 deaths "between the Tête Rousse refuge (3,187 m) and the Goûter refuge (3,830 m)". There were 17 more in 2012–15, none in 2016, and 11 in 2017. The recent temperature rises and heatwaves, such as those of the summers of 2015 and 2018, have significantly impacted many climbing routes across

4959-459: The fatalities of Air India Flight 245 and Air India Flight 101 , two planes that crashed into Mont Blanc. Despite unsubstantiated claims recurring in media that "some estimates put the fatality rate at an average of 100 hikers a year", actual reported annual numbers at least since the 1990s are between 10 and 20: in 2017, fourteen people died out of 20,000 summit attempts, and two remained missing; with 15 in 2018 as of August. A French study on

5046-752: The final part of the itinerary to the top shared by the popular Goûter Route and the Grand Mulets Route. In July 2014, an American entrepreneur and traveller Patrick Sweeney attempted to break the record with his nine-year-old son and 11-year-old daughter. They were caught in an avalanche , escaped death and decided not to pursue their attempt. In August 2014, an unknown Austrian climber with his 5-year-old son were intercepted by mountain gendarmes at 3,200 m (10,500 ft) and forced to turn back. On 5 August 2017, 9-year-old Hungarian twins and their mother were rescued from 3,800 m (12,500 ft) by helicopter while their father and family friend continued their summit attempt. The Mont Blanc massif

5133-425: The final section of the climb is reached. The last 1,000 m (3,300 ft) push to the summit is undertaken. Each year climbing deaths occur on Mont Blanc. On the busiest weekends, normally around August, the local rescue service performs an average of 12 missions, mostly directed to aid people in trouble on one of the normal routes of the mountain. Some routes require knowledge of high-altitude mountaineering and

5220-441: The four main languages spoken in the Alps ( German , French , Italian , Slovene ) and in English , while lower level groups are just named in the language/languages of the concerned country/countries. Examples: Northern Cottian Alps subsection (STS.4.III ) is also called: Ambin group , located on the French-Italian border, is just referred as: From the line Savona - Bocchetta di Altare - Montezemolo - Mondovì to

5307-402: The highest and most extensive mountain ranges in Europe , stretching approximately 1,200 km (750 mi) across eight Alpine countries (from west to east): Monaco , France , Switzerland , Italy , Liechtenstein , Germany , Austria and Slovenia . The Alpine arch extends from Nice on the western Mediterranean to Trieste on the Adriatic and Vienna at the beginning of

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5394-498: The historical and geographical regions in the Alps. Mountain groups lower level : divided with a benchmark mountaineering. (With some relative sectors (SR) intermediate to groups above) To any alpine mountain can be assigned a SOIUSA code , which shows to what part, sector, section, subsection, supergroup, group and subgroup the mountain belongs. Example: SOIUSA parametres for Pointe Sommeiller ( Fr ) / Punta Sommeiller ( It ) are: Names of higher level groups are given in

5481-563: The lean slightly, but three years later (two years after Janssen's death), a crevasse started opening under the observatory. It was abandoned. Eventually the building fell, and only the tower could be saved in extremis . The mountain was the scene of two fatal air crashes; Air India Flight 245 in 1950 and Air India Flight 101 in 1966. Both planes were approaching Geneva Airport and the pilots miscalculated their descent; 48 and 117 people, respectively, died. The passengers on flight 101 included nuclear scientist Homi J. Bhabha , known as

5568-410: The line Rhine - Splügen Pass - Lake Como - Lake Lecco; they are divided in 14 sections (in brackets their highest summit). From the line Rhine - Splügen Pass - Lake Como - Lake Lecco to the line Vienna - Sopron - Köszeg - Graz - Maribor and Godovič Pass ; they are divided in 22 sections (in brackets their highest summit). Alps The Alps ( / æ l p s / ) are one of

5655-489: The main Alpine watershed, from the Aiguille des Glaciers to Mont Dolent , where it reaches the border with Switzerland. However, its precise location near the summits of Mont Blanc and nearby Dôme du Goûter is disputed. Italian officials claim the border follows the watershed, splitting both summits between Italy and France. In contrast, French officials claim the border avoids the two summits, placing them entirely with France. The size of these two (distinct) disputed areas

5742-407: 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

5829-419: The mountains in which a valley leads from the plains and hilly pre-mountainous zones. In the medieval period hospices were established by religious orders at the summits of many of the main passes. The most important passes are the Col de l'Iseran (the highest), the Col Agnel , the Brenner Pass , the Mont-Cenis , the Great St. Bernard Pass , the Col de Tende , the Gotthard Pass , the Semmering Pass ,

5916-407: The orogenic events that affected them. The geological subdivision differentiates the Western, Eastern Alps, and Southern Alps: the Helveticum in the north, the Penninicum and Austroalpine system in the centre and, south of the Periadriatic Seam, the Southern Alpine system . According to geologist Stefan Schmid, because the Western Alps underwent a metamorphic event in the Cenozoic Era while

6003-443: The peak had shifted to a point 75 cm (30 in) away from where it had been in 2002. After these results were published, more than 500 points were measured to assess the effects of climate change and the mountain's height fluctuations at different points. Since then, the mountain's elevation has been measured every two years. The summit was measured again in 2005, and the results were published on 16 December 2005. The height

6090-423: The protection of Mont Blanc) published in 2002 the book Le versant noir du mont Blanc (The black hillside of Mont Blanc), which exposes current and future problems in conserving the site. In 2007, Europe's two highest toilets (at 4,260 metres, 13,976 feet) were taken by helicopter to the top of Mont Blanc. They are also serviced by helicopter. They will serve 30,000 skiers and hikers annually, helping to alleviate

6177-454: The range's area), Italy (27.2%), France (21.4%), Switzerland (13.2%), Germany (5.8%), Slovenia (3.6%), Liechtenstein (0.08%) and Monaco (0.001%). The highest portion of the range is divided by the glacial trough of the Rhône valley, from Mont Blanc to the Matterhorn and Monte Rosa on the southern side, and the Bernese Alps on the northern. The peaks in the easterly portion of the range, in Austria and Slovenia, are smaller than those in

6264-413: The rising peaks underwent erosion, a layer of marine flysch sediments was deposited in the foreland basin , and the sediments became involved in younger folds as the orogeny progressed. Coarse sediments from the continual uplift and erosion were later deposited in foreland areas north of the Alps. These regions in Switzerland and Bavaria are well-developed, containing classic examples of flysch , which

6351-522: The rock formations of the Alps in the 18th century. In the mid-19th century, the now-defunct idea of geosynclines was used to explain the presence of "folded" mountain chains. This theory was replaced in the mid-20th century by the theory of plate tectonics . The formation of the Alps (the Alpine orogeny ) was an episodic process that began about 300 million years ago. In the Paleozoic Era

6438-645: The same period. Modern Swiss mapping, published by the Federal Office of Topography , plots a region of disputed territory (statut de territoire contesté) around the summits of both Mont Blanc and the Dôme du Goûter. One of its interpretations of the French-Italian border places both summits straddling a line running directly along the geographic ridgeline (watershed) between France and Italy, thus sharing their summits equally between both states. However,

6525-405: The security bays now have live video contact to communicate with the control centre. A remote site for cargo safety inspection was created on each side: Aosta in Italy and Passy-Le Fayet in France. Here all trucks are inspected before entering the tunnel. These remote sites are also used as staging areas to control commercial traffic during peak hours. The renovated tunnel reopened three years after

6612-752: The summer months and where huts and hay barns can be found, sometimes constituting tiny hamlets. Therefore, the term "the Alps", as a reference to the mountains, is a misnomer. The term for the mountain peaks varies by nation and language: words such as Horn , Kogel , Kopf , Gipfel , Spitze , Stock , and Berg are used in German-speaking regions; Mont , Pic , Tête , Pointe , Dent , Roche , and Aiguille in French-speaking regions; and Monte , Picco , Corno , Punta , Pizzo , or Cima in Italian-speaking regions. The Alps are

6699-709: The summit area has long been disputed between France and Italy. The Mont Blanc massif is popular for outdoor activities like hiking , climbing , trail running and winter sports like skiing , and snowboarding . The most popular climbing route to the summit of Mont Blanc is the Goûter Route , which typically takes two days. The three towns and their communes which surround Mont Blanc are Courmayeur in Aosta Valley , Italy; and Saint-Gervais-les-Bains and Chamonix in Haute-Savoie , France. The latter town

6786-678: The summit of Mont Blanc on a clear day, the Jura , the Vosges , the Black Forest , and the Massif Central mountain ranges can be seen, as well as the principal summits of the Alps. Several classic climbing routes lead to the summit of Mont Blanc: Nowadays, the summit is ascended by an average of 20,000 mountaineer tourists each year. It could be considered a technically easy yet arduous ascent for someone well-trained and acclimatised to

6873-829: The summit of Mont Blanc within Savoy and consequently, within French territory. After the Napoleonic Wars, the Congress of Vienna restored the King of Sardinia in Savoy, Nice, and Piedmont, his traditional territories, overruling the 1796 Treaty of Paris. Forty-five years later, after the Second Italian War of Independence , it was replaced by a new legal act. This act was signed in Turin on 24 March 1860 by Napoleon III and Victor Emmanuel II of Savoy , and deals with

6960-429: The time neither within Italy nor France) was on 8 August 1786 by Jacques Balmat and the doctor Michel Paccard . This climb, initiated by Horace-Bénédict de Saussure , who rewarded the successful ascent, traditionally marks the start of modern mountaineering. The first woman to reach the summit was Marie Paradis in 1808. At the scale of the Mont Blanc massif , the border between Italy and France passes along most of

7047-401: The tunnel beneath the mountain. In total, 39 people were killed when the fire raged out of control. The tunnel was renovated in the aftermath to increase driver safety. Renovations include computerised detection equipment, extra security bays, a parallel escape shaft, and a fire station in the middle of the tunnel. The escape shafts also have clean air flowing through them via vents. Any people in

7134-539: The various orogenies including exposures of basement rock. Due to the ever-present geologic instability, earthquakes continue in the Alps to this day. Typically, the largest earthquakes in the alps have been between magnitude 6 and 7 on the Richter scale. Geodetic measurements show ongoing topographic uplift at rates of up to about 2.5 mm per year in the North, Western and Central Alps, and at ~1 mm per year in

7221-548: The west in the Bernese Oberland. Because of his work he came to be known as the "father of the ice-age concept" although other naturalists before him put forth similar ideas. Agassiz studied glacier movement in the 1840s at the Unteraar Glacier where he found the glacier moved 100 m (328 ft) per year, more rapidly in the middle than at the edges. His work was continued by other scientists and now

7308-548: The wider range of the Mont Blanc massif. Located on the watershed between the Rhône and the Po , the massif of Mont Blanc is also situated between the two different climatic regions of the northern and western Alps and that of the southern Alps. Climatic conditions on the Mer de Glace are similar to those found on the northern side of the Swiss Alps . The climate is cold and temperate ( Köppen climate classification Cfb ), and

7395-497: Was found to be 4,808.75 m (15,776 ft 9 in), 30 cm (12 in) more than the previously recorded height. The rock summit was found to be at 4,792 m (15,722 ft), some 40 m (130 ft) west of the ice-covered summit. In 2007, the summit was measured at 4,807.9 m (15,774 ft) and in 2009 at 4,807.45 m (15,772 ft). In 2013, the summit was measured at 4,810.02 m (15,781 ft) and in 2015 at 4,808.73 m (15,777 ft). From

7482-484: Was occasionally used as a name for Scotland , although it is more likely derived from the Latin word albus , the colour white. In modern languages the term alp , alm , albe or alpe refers to a grazing pastures in the alpine regions below the glaciers, not the peaks. An alp refers to a high mountain pasture, typically near or above the tree line , where cows and other livestock are taken to be grazed during

7569-455: Was the site of the first Winter Olympics . A cable car ascends and crosses the mountain range from Courmayeur to Chamonix through the Col du Géant . The 11.6 km ( 7 + 1 ⁄ 4  mi) Mont Blanc Tunnel , constructed between 1957 and 1965, runs beneath the mountain and is a major transalpine transport route. Mont Blanc and adjacent mountains in the massif are predominately formed from

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