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:
“The poet will prevail to be popular in spite of his faults, and in spite of his beauties too. He will hit the nail on the head, and we shall not know the shape of his hammer. He makes us free of his hearth and heart, which is greater than to offer one the freedom of a city.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The work of the world is common as mud.
Botched, it smears the hands, crumbles to dust.
But the thing worth doing well done
has a shape that satisfies, clean and evident.
...
The pitcher cries for water to carry
and a person for work that is real.”
—Marge Piercy (b. 1936)
“There is another side to chivalry. If it dispenses leniency, it may with equal justification invoke control.”
—Freda Adler (b. 1934)
“It was a comfort in those succeeding days to sit up and contemplate the majestic panorama of mountains and valleys spread out below us and eat ham and hard boiled eggs while our spiritual natures reveled alternately in rainbows, thunderstorms, and peerless sunsets. Nothing helps scenery like ham and eggs.”
—Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835–1910)