Prelims ask
Learn the seven countries and the Rhine–Rhône split. Do not put the Danube’s source in the Alps; it is the Black Forest.
Europe · Young fold
Alps
- Countries
- West to east: France, Switzerland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Germany, Austria, Slovenia.
- Length
- About 1,200 km. Exam-safe figure.
- Orientation
- East–west arc.
- Mountain type
- Young fold
- Plates
- African plate, including the Adriatic promontory, colliding with the Eurasian plate. The Tethys sediments were folded in.
- Highest peak
- Mont Blanc, 4,809 m, France–Italy. Exam-safe figure. Surveys cluster between about 4,805 m and 4,810 m.
- Rivers that rise here
- Rhine and Rhône rise close together in the Swiss Alps and flow to opposite seas. Po flows south. The Inn carries Alpine water into the Danube.
- Climate and rain shadow
- A climatic divide between marine west-coast and Mediterranean air. Foehn winds warm the leeward valleys.
Mains use
Standard continent–continent example with the Himalayas, but volcanism is not on the Alpine crest. Italian volcanoes belong to Mediterranean subduction.