Alpentor
An alpentor (literally "Alpine gateway", plural alpentore) in geology is the point where an entire glacier forced its way through to the Alpine Foreland from the Alps during the ice age.
Alpentore during the Würm glaciation
During the Würm glaciation, where several glaciers from different Alpine valleys met or flowed through narrow passages at the edge of the Alps, ice was piled up. Such bottlenecks had a significant impact on the level of the ice sheet which meant that it eventually flowed over low mountain passes and ridges and the glaciers were combined into a network of ice streams.
Alpentore, through which particularly large masses of ice poured into the surrounding plains, were mainly located at the mouths of large longitudinal valleys such as
A further prerequisite for glaciers extending into the Alpine foreland are high mountains. East of the Salzach, glacier tongues hardly reached the edge of the Alps, because the mountains of the
Examples of Inn valley glaciers
In the
At the
The Loisach Glacier, another tributary, flowed between the
References
- ISBN 3-900312-58-3
- ISBN 978-3-931516-09-3