Shape of Side Valleys
Whereas the valleys near the river flats don't have special forms, the shape of alpine valleys depends much more from the former glaciology and of the rock type.
Like the main valleys described above, the side- or secondary valley can be V-shaped or U-shaped. Also the valley floor varies - from just a few meters up to some 100 m (e.g. Bad Gastein or St. Moritz, where small towns have been developed instead of 1000 or 1500 m altitude.
Some valleys are stepped in longitudinal direction (German "Talstufe") which means that these zones show a quicker current than in average. Therefore the brook will dig its own narrow canal, and the eroded sediments are deposed at the end of each clammy, forming a series of local plains. They are an important basis of traditional mountain farming because of excellent places for alpine agriculture or pastures.
Read more about this topic: Side Valley
Famous quotes containing the words shape of, shape, side and/or valleys:
“If I commit suicide, it will not be to destroy myself but to put myself back together again. Suicide will be for me only one means of violently reconquering myself, of brutally invading my being, of anticipating the unpredictable approaches of God. By suicide, I reintroduce my design in nature, I shall for the first time give things the shape of my will.”
—Antonin Artaud (1896–1948)
“Irish poets, learn your trade,
Sing whatever is well made,
Scorn the sort now growing up
All out of shape from toe to top,”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)
“We lay there without moving. But under us all moved, and moved us, gently, up and down, and from side to side.”
—Samuel Beckett (1906–1989)
“But oh, not the hills of Habersham,
And oh, not the valleys of Hall
Avail: I am fain for to water the plain.
Downward, the voices of Duty call—
Downward, to toil and be mixed with the main,
The dry fields burn, and the mills are to turn,
And a myriad flowers mortally yearn,
And the lordly main from beyond the plain
Calls o’er the hills of Habersham,
Calls through the valleys of Hall.”
—Sidney Lanier (1842–1881)