Über Flächen- und Achsengefüge in den Triebwasserstollen des Rodundwerkes (Montafon)

Ohne ZusammenfassungMit 1 Textabbildung und 12 Diagrammen.     

DIE TECHNISCHE UND WIRTSCHAFTLICHE BEDEUTUNG DER GLETSCHER / The Role of Glaciers in the Economy and Technical Development of Alpine Countries

English Summary

In former times the inhabitants of alpine regions looked upon glaciers as an uncanny and dangerous realm which they avoided as far as possible. It was only around the middle of the 18th Century that man became gradually aware of the beauty of the mountains, and approximately at the same time science started to take an interest in glaciers. Most of the questions raised in this field have been solved since. However, even in our times it is not sufficiently well known that glaciers, which are responsible for the characteristics of the regime of alpine rivers, are interesting not only from the point of view of physical geography, but are also of great importance for the economy and technical development of alpine countries.

Torrents which are fed by the melted ice, carry great quantities of water at periods when other streams frequently run dry. Nevertheless, in the terms of hydraulic power economy, it would be an over simplification to consider glaciers as reservoirs. It must not be forgotten, that in the Alps precipitation is highest during the summer months, and consequently that rivers carry more water during that season than during any other period of the year. The presence of glaciers adds to the extreme situation, and therefore the equalisation of seasonal differences in the runoff of glaciers necessary for power economy requires more storage capacity than is needed for catchment areas without glaciers.

On the other hand, there are also arid zones in the Alps, where conditions are entirely different. I am thinking of the deep valleys, running east to west, which are screened from rain by high mountain ranges, as for instance in the Wallis, the Vintschgau, parts of Western Tyrol and the Engadine. In these valleys it is particularly the slopes open to the south and exposed to constant insolation which show the typical characteristics and vegetation of arid zones. Precipitation during the growing season is often far less than the 600mm which is considered as the minimum needed for most types of cultivation, so much so that artificial irrigation has been practised for many generations. Whenever possible, the aqueducts, often very primitive, are fed by the glacier runoff of the large mountain massifs which never run dry. In some parts of the Wallis and in the South and West Tyrol, the water had to be conducted long distances and across difficult terrain; the construction of these primitive aqueducts was therefore a truly difficult task, as financial and technical resources available for that purpose were very inadequate.

This additional water-supply produced by glaciers in summer has a very definite effect on the large rivers rising in the Alps and flowing down in all directions, to name a few of them, the Rhine, the Inn, the Drave, the Rhône, the Adige etc. Not a single one of them has a low water level record in summer equal to that of the Weser or the Elbe and many other rivers of Central Europe which are not fed by glaciers. This low water level in summer has naturally a very detrimental effect on the navigation of rivers, and also on their capacity to replenish ground-water resources. The abundance of glacier runoff assures a fairly steady supply of water to the first mentioned rivers even in their lower courses, a fact which is of special importance for hydraulic economy in general and for hydraulic energy economy in particular. The rich potential of hydraulic energy in Jugoslavia, for instance, suffers from the fact that the quantity of water carried by the karst-rivers is considerably smaller in summer than it is in winter. The river Drave with its tributaries fed by glacier runoff from the Alps in Carynthia and East Tyrol, is practically the only river in Jugoslavia used to a considerable extent for the production of hydraulic power. It carries even more water in summer than during other seasons. This river, which serves to equalise the seasonal production of energy is therefore most valuable for the power economy of the country.

Short-term changes in the size of glaciers which are the subject of our present symposium, are causing the development of glacier lakes of which there exist several types. Most dangerous are those in larger valleys, caused by the tongue of a side glacier forming a dam, for instance here in the Ötztal Alps, at the Gurgler and at the Rofener Eissee near Vent. Other lakes develop in the basins left behind by the tongues of former glaciers. Water suddenly released from glacier lakes due to a breach of the ice or moraine dam, has frequently been the cause of terrible catastrophes. Attempts have therefore been made to protect the valleys against floods by the construction of flood reservoirs suitably situated below the glacier. An example of this type is the reservoir dam which the Austrian torrent-control authorities constructed in the Martellvalley (South Tyrol) in 1898/99 to prevent damage from an eventual breach in the banks of a glacier lake which had developed. Nowadays the large reservoirs constructed for hydro-electric power provide even greater protection.

Reservoirs for power plants in the Alps, which are created by the construction of large dams, require the existence of basins hollowed out by former glaciers during a long geological period. Outside of the glaciated areas, such basins can generally be created only by artificially blocking up a river-valley. This type of reservoir can be easily distinguished from that described above by its entirely different outline.

It must finally be remembered that the large load of sediment carried by glacial rivers has its economic and technical problems. Although it will probably take centuries to fill up the largest hydro-electric reservoirs, or even to considerably reduce their storage capacity, there are many smaller lakes in which this development will take no more than decades. Deposits of mud, for instance in the reservoir of the Margaritze, in the “Tauernfraftwerke” area had, after a mere decade accumulated to the extent that the power-plant administration had to install a floating suction dredger to remove at least part of the sediment. In this connection it was, however, important not to overload the river downstream with mud to such a degree as to cause damage to the fish population. Careful observation was needed to find out to what extent the river was able to cope with the artificial inflow of mud, and to follow the dispersion of the peak values of the suspesion load.

Nowadays waters destined for the generation of hydro-electric power are collected at the highest possible altitudes. An interesting example of the application of modern methods of this type is the collection of the runoff from beneath the Brandner Ferner in the Silvretta from where it is conveyed to the Lünersee. As a water intake on the surface was impossible due to the difficult terrain, a tunnel had to be driven through the rock bed of the glacier and there, immediately underneath it, in an ice cave, the water flows into a cage consisting of strong steel girders. This cage retains the large bolders, while the water from the bottom of the glacier runs off into the tunnel.     

U-Pb monazite ages in amphibolite- to granulite-facies orthogneiss reflect hydrous mineral breakdown reactions: Sveconorwegian Province of SW Norway

In the Rogaland–Vest Agder terrain of the Sveconorwegian Province of SW Norway, two main Sveconorwegian metamorphic phases are reported: a phase of regional metamorphism linked to orogenic thickening (M1) and a phase of low-pressure thermal metamorphism associated with the intrusion of the 931 ± 2 Ma anorthosite-charnockite Rogaland igneous complex (M2). Phase M1 reached granulite facies to the west of the terrane and M2 culminated locally at 800–850 °C with the formation of dry osumilite-bearing mineral associations. Monazite and titanite U-Pb geochronology was conducted on 17 amphibolite- to granulite-facies orthogneiss samples, mainly from a suite of 1050 ⁺²/₋₈ Ma calc-alkaline augen gneisses, the Feda suite. In these rocks, prograde negatively discordant monazite crystallized during breakdown of allanite and titanite in upper amphibolite facies at 1012–1006 Ma. In the Feda suite and other charnockitic gneisses, concordant to slightly discordant monazite at 1024–997 Ma probably reflects breakdown of biotite during granulite-facies M1 metamorphism. A spread of monazite ages down to 970 Ma in biotite ± hornblende samples possibly corresponds to the waning stage of this first event. In the Feda suite, a well defined monazite growth episode at 930–925 Ma in the amphibolite-facies domain corresponds to major clinopyroxene formation at the expense of hornblende during M2. Growth or resetting of monazite was extremely limited during this phase in the granulite-facies domain, up to the direct vicinity of the anorthosite complex. The M2 event was shortly followed by cooling through ca. 610 °C as indicated by tightly grouped U-Pb ages of accessory titanite and titanite relict inclusions at 918 ± 2 Ma over the entire region. A last generation of U-poor monazite formed during regional cooling below 610 °C, in hornblende-rich samples at 912–904 Ma. This study suggests: (1) that monazite formed during the prograde path of high-grade metamorphism may be preserved; (2) that monazite ages reflect primary or secondary growth of monazite linked to metamorphic reactions involving redistribution of REEs and Th, and/or fluid mobilisation; (3) that the U-Pb system in monazite is not affected by thermal events up to 800–850 °C, provided that conditions were dry during metamorphism. Received: 9 January 1997 / Accepted: 15 April 1998