A natural window: the sun shines through the Martinsloch hole. It illuminates the belltower of Elm’s church, which was built with this in mind in around 1500.
(Elm-Sernftal Tourism)
The magic line as seen at the Tschingelhoren.
(R. Homberger, Arosa)
swiss-image
A partial view of the Tschingelhoren.
(R. Homberger, Arosa)
swiss-image
The tectonic area as seen from Lochsite, near Sool-Schwanden.
(Paola Beltrame, swissinfo.ch)
This groove, called the magic line, separates the two rock masses. The reddish one above is the oldest.
(Paola Beltrame, swissinfo.ch)
A red and green rock mosaic along the Semf stream in the valley of the same name.
(Paola Beltrame, swissinfo.ch)
Purplish red to dark green Verrucano stone of around 250 million years old has been pushed on top of a much younger (50 million years old) light-grey/brown Flysch at the Glarus Overthrust. Much of the stone has been carried away through erosion and by rivers.
(Paola Beltrame, swissinfo.ch)
A view on to the Tschingelhoren from Segnasboden, near Flims.
(Keystone/Arno Balzarini)
Keystone
A full moon shines down on Elm through the Martinsloch.
(Elm-Sernftal Tourism)
Elm-Sernftal Tourismus
Nature's forces through a period of more than 250 million years.
This content was published on
This alpine area of more than 300 km² in eastern Switzerland is an exceptional example of the mountain-forming process and is considered fundamental to our understanding of plate tectonics.
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.