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THE ORIGINS OF A DREAM

The enchanting landscapes we see today conceal treasures of inestimable value. Whole chapters of a history dating back literally thousand of centuries-270 million years of nature's mystical work. Millions of years and the earth's deepest energy pushed up these massive blocks from the ocean to be hewed by the elements sculpting hands. Let's start with the Triassic age, 250 million years ago, and the warm Thetys sea bed, rich with seaweed, molluscs, fish and coral. The earth's tectonic plate movements pushed together the areas of today's Africa and Europe, with volcanic eruptions, fractures and folding that uplifted the area. The sea gradually withdrew, exposing the sea bed with its crustacea and fish as lasting testimony to its presence. Thus the dolomites emerged, their skyward ascent faster than the process of erosion which, in the millennia to come, would carve the landscapes we see today: spires, massifs, sheer rock faces, and beside them-as if to complement their majesty-the valleys, with their softer outlines eroded by water as opposed to sharper frost-etched shapes of the peaks.

THE FOSSILS

"A characteristic of dolomitic rock is that, unlike other parts of the Alps where fossilisation took place by organic compoundstransforming into stone, in this region the animal and plant remains dissolved, leaving behind their imprints and moulds." The splendid megalodonte, a mollusc that flourished here 220 million years ago, is just one example of the fossil found in the region. They vary from a few centimetres to almost a metre across-perhaps you will find one on your trip!

 

 

THE GLACIERS

The ice ages cast their frozen spell across the area, with mantles over 1500 metres thick. And in the milder interglacial times, the rocks were chiselled by the elements, creating new valleys, lakes and remote, high-level eternal glaciers. Plant life was always the first to return, talking a precarious foothold in between the barren rocks.

 

THE NAME"DOLOMITES"

Derives from the rock's first "official" Scholar, the French geologist Deòdat-Guy-Sylvain-Tancrè de Gratet de Dolomieu(1750-1801),who in 1789 was so fascinated by the carbonate rock of the area that he sent samples to Switzerland for classification. These were returned along with the announcement that their geological composition-hitherto unknown- warranted their naming after the "Founder". In the 19th century, it was largely the English Tourist who applied the original "Dolomia" name more widely to the extension of its geological area.

 

DOLOMITE

Rock is made up of stratified calcium magnesium carbonate, with some areas of purer limestone. Depending on the area, some parts are more stratified and folded than others and contain thick layers of seaweed, coral and other organism that lived in the ancient Tethys Sea.

Authors: Flavio

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