Echoes of Wind
To cut a 200 million years story short, the orogenesis of the European Alps developed in the following way: The ancient Tethys ocean was more than 1000 km wide and was located in today's area of the Mediterranean Sea. Due to active subduction on both sides of the ocean Tethys shortened to a width below 100 km including its deep trenches. This caused the continental collision of Africa and Europe. Consequently a mountain range developed out of uplifted ocean sediments, volcanic ocean crust called ophiolithes and continental granite that turned into gneiss. All this organized into faulted recumbent fold structures called nappes. The limestone sediments of the Tethys ocean including coral reefs are now located at an altitude of of 2500 m.
May 1998
Pentax K2, Sigma 70-300mm, f/8, 2sec, Kodak Ektachrome E6, ISO 100, polarization filter, tripod