Alps - geography.

Alps - geography. I INTRODUCTION Alps, great mountain system of south central Europe, forming an arc some 1200 km (750 mi) long from the Gulf of Genoa to the Danube River at Vienna. The Alps are the highest and most densely settled mountain belt of Europe, occupying an area of about 200,000 sq km (about 80,000 sq mi) and inhabited by some 20 million people. The valleys of the Alps are areas of year-round settlement; the flatter upland tracts comprise pastures and seasonally inhabited settlements, and the zone above the timberline serves as pasture and for recreation. Important economic activities include tourism, dairy farming, forestry, the production of hydroelectric power, and the extraction of salt and iron ore. With its important pass routes between central and southern Europe, the Alps have been an area of transit trade since ancient times. II GEOLOGIC STRUCTURE AND FORMATION The Alps are a complex fold-mountain system. Sedimentary deposits of vast thickness, mainly limestone and dolomite, were laid down in the ancestral Tethys...