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Mer De Glace Ice Cave
The Mer de Glace ice cave () is an artificial ice cave in the French department of Haute-Savoie, on the Mont Blanc massif of the French Alps. The cave, which is situated within the Chamonix valley, on the Mer de Glace glacier, has been dug out every year since the middle of the 19th century. This annual renewal is made necessary by the flow of the glacier it sits on. Mer de Glace welcomes approximately 350,000 visitors per year. History Precursors Before the cave's creation, one of the main attractions for tourists visiting the Chamonix valley was the 20–30 metre-high arch formed by the Arveyron river as it emerged from the Mer de Glace glacier. However, some years, the arch failed to form or collapsed.Yves Abraham, "La grotte de cristal", in ''Nature et patrimoine en pays de Savoie'', pages 4–6, n° 37, June 2012. In 1862, a foreign builder proposed to create an artistic grotto based on the gallery dug for visitors in the Lower Grindelwald Glacier. The residents of Cha ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pickaxe
A pickaxe, pick-axe, or pick is a generally T-shaped hand tool used for Leverage (mechanics), prying. Its head is typically metal, attached perpendicularly to a longer handle, traditionally made of wood, occasionally metal, and increasingly fiberglass. A standard pickaxe, similar to a "mattock, pick mattock", has a pointed end on one side of its head and a broad flat "axe" blade opposite. A gradual curve characteristically spans the length of the head. The next most common configuration features two spikes, one slightly longer than the other. The pointed end is used both for breaking and prying, the axe for hoeing, skimming, and chopping through roots. Developed as agricultural tools in prehistoric times, picks have evolved into other tools such as the plough and the mattock. They also have been used in general construction and traditional mining, mining, and adapted to warfare. Etymology The Oxford Dictionary of English states that both ''pick'' and ''pickaxe'' have t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tourist Attractions In Haute-Savoie
Tourism is travel for pleasure, and the Commerce, commercial activity of providing and supporting such travel. World Tourism Organization, UN Tourism defines tourism more generally, in terms which go "beyond the common perception of tourism as being limited to holiday activity only", as people "travelling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure and not less than 24 hours, business and other purposes". Tourism can be Domestic tourism, domestic (within the traveller's own country) or International tourism, international. International tourism has both incoming and outgoing implications on a country's balance of payments. Between the second half of 2008 and the end of 2009, tourism numbers declined due to a severe Economy, economic slowdown (see Great Recession) and the outbreak of the 2009 2009 flu pandemic, H1N1 influenza virus. These numbers, however, recovered until the COVID-19 pandemic put an abrupt end to th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Artificial Caves
Artificiality (the state of being artificial, anthropogenic, or man-made) is the state of being the product of intentional human manufacture, rather than occurring nature, naturally through processes not involving or requiring human activity. Connotations Artificiality often carries with it the implication of being false, counterfeit, or deceptive. The philosopher Aristotle wrote in his ''Rhetoric (Aristotle), Rhetoric'': However, artificiality does not necessarily have a negative connotation, as it may also reflect the ability of humans to replicate forms or functions arising in nature, as with an artificial heart or artificial intelligence. Political scientist and artificial intelligence expert Herbert A. Simon observes that "some artificial things are imitations of things in nature, and the imitation may use either the same basic materials as those in the natural object or quite different materials.Herbert A. Simon, ''The Sciences of the Artificial'' (1996), p. 4. Simon dist ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ice Caves
An ice cave is any type of natural cave (most commonly lava tubes or limestone caves) that contains significant amounts of perennial (year-round) ice. At least a portion of the cave must have a temperature below 0 °C (32 °F) all year round, and water must have traveled into the cave’s cold zone. Terminology This type of cave was first formally described by Englishman Edwin Swift Balch in 1900, who suggested the French term ''glacieres'' should be used for them, even though the term ''ice cave'' was then, as now, commonly used to refer to caves simply containing year-round ice. Among speleologists, ''ice cave'' is the proper English term. A cavity formed ''within'' ice (as in a glacier) is properly called a glacier cave. Types Ice caves occur as static ice caves, such as Peña Castil Ice Cave, and dynamic or cyclical ice caves, such as Eisriesenwelt. Temperature mechanisms In most of the world, bedrock caves are thermally insulated from the surface and so co ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Caves Of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes
Caves or caverns are natural voids under the Earth's surface. Caves often form by the weathering of rock and often extend deep underground. Exogene caves are smaller openings that extend a relatively short distance underground (such as rock shelters). Caves which extend further underground than the opening is wide are called endogene caves. Speleology is the science of exploration and study of all aspects of caves and the cave environment. Visiting or exploring caves for recreation may be called ''caving'', ''potholing'', or ''spelunking''. Formation types The formation and development of caves is known as ''speleogenesis''; it can occur over the course of millions of years. Caves can range widely in size, and are formed by various geological processes. These may involve a combination of chemical processes, erosion by water, tectonic forces, microorganisms, pressure, and atmospheric influences. Isotopic dating techniques can be applied to cave sediments, to determine the time ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Landforms Of Haute-Savoie
A landform is a land feature on the solid surface of the Earth or other planetary body. They may be natural or may be anthropogenic (caused or influenced by human activity). Landforms together make up a given terrain, and their arrangement in the landscape is known as topography. Landforms include hills, mountains, canyons, and valleys, as well as shoreline features such as bays, peninsulas, and seas, including submerged features such as mid-ocean ridges, volcanoes, and the great oceanic basins. Physical characteristics Landforms are categorized by characteristic physical attributes such as elevation, slope, orientation, structure stratification, rock exposure, and soil type. Gross physical features or landforms include intuitive elements such as berms, cliffs, hills, mounds, peninsulas, ridges, rivers, valleys, volcanoes, and numerous other structural and size-scaled (e.g. ponds vs. lakes, hills vs. mountains) elements including various kinds of inland and oceanic waterbodi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gondola Lift
A gondola lift is a means of cable transport and type of aerial lift which is supported and propelled by cables from above. It consists of a loop of steel wire rope that is strung between two stations, sometimes over intermediate supporting towers. The cable is driven by a bullwheel in a terminal, which is typically connected to an engine or electric motor. It is often considered a ''continuous system'' since it features a haul rope which continuously moves and circulates around two terminal stations. In contrast, an aerial tramway operates solely with fixed grips and simply shuttles back and forth between two end terminals. The capacity, cost, and functionality of a gondola lift will differ dramatically depending on the combination of cables used for support and haulage and the type of grip (detachable or fixed). Because of the proliferation of such systems in the Alps, the and are also used in English-language texts. The systems may also be referred to as cable car ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chemin De Fer Du Montenvers
The Montenvers Railway or Chemin de fer du Montenvers () is a rack railway line in the Haute-Savoie department of France. The line runs from a connection with the SNCF, in Chamonix, to the ''Hotel de Montenvers'' station, at the Mer de Glace, at an altitude of . Overview The line is long and has a track gauge of . It is a rack and adhesion railway, using the Strub rack system to overcome a height difference of . Except for the terminal stations, which are operated in adhesion mode, the line has a gradient varying from 11% to 22%. The line is operated by the which also manages the Mont Blanc Tramway and many ski lifts in the Mont Blanc region. The first section of the line as far as Caillet opened in 1908 and the line was completed in 1909. The trains originally were drawn by steam locomotives built by SLM who supplied six 2-4-2T locomotives between 1908 and 1923. By 1953 the line was electrified, using an overhead line An overhead line or overhead wire is an electr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ski Lift
A ski lift is a mechanism for transporting skiers up a hill. Ski lifts are typically a Lift ticket, paid service at ski resorts. The first ski lift was built in 1908 by German Robert Winterhalder in Schollach/Eisenbach, Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald, Hochschwarzwald. Types * Aerial lifts transport skiers while suspended off the ground. Aerial lifts are often bicable ropeways, the "Numeral prefix, bi-" prefix meaning that the cables have two different functions (carrying and pulling). **Aerial tramways ** Chairlifts and detachable chairlifts ** Funifors ** Funitels ** Gondola lifts ** Hybrid lifts * Surface lifts, including T-bars, magic carpets, and rope tows. * Cable railways, including funiculars * Helicopters are used for heliskiing and snowcats for snowcat skiing. This is backcountry skiing or boarding accessed by a snowcat or helicopter instead of a lift, or by hiking. Cat skiing is less than half the cost of heliskiing, more expensive than a lift ticket but is easier than ski ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Machine Pour Creuser La Glace De La Mer De Glace
A machine is a physical system that uses power to apply forces and control movement to perform an action. The term is commonly applied to artificial devices, such as those employing engines or motors, but also to natural biological macromolecules, such as molecular machines. Machines can be driven by animals and people, by natural forces such as wind and water, and by chemical, thermal, or electrical power, and include a system of mechanisms that shape the actuator input to achieve a specific application of output forces and movement. They can also include computers and sensors that monitor performance and plan movement, often called mechanical systems. Renaissance natural philosophers identified six simple machines which were the elementary devices that put a load into motion, and calculated the ratio of output force to input force, known today as mechanical advantage. Modern machines are complex systems that consist of structural elements, mechanisms and control components ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chamonix
Chamonix-Mont-Blanc (; ; (no longer in use)), more commonly known simply as Chamonix (), is a communes of France, commune in the departments of France, department in the regions of France, region in Southeastern France. It was the site of the first Winter Olympic Games, Winter Olympics, held in 1924 Winter Olympics, 1924. Chamonix is situated in the French Alps just north of Mont Blanc, the highest mountain in Western Europe. Between the peaks of the and the notable , it borders both Switzerland and Italy. It is one of the oldest ski resorts in France, popular with alpinists and mountain enthusiasts. Via Vallée Blanche Cable Car, the cable car lift to the Aiguille du Midi it is possible to access the backcountry skiing, off-piste ski run of the ('white valley'). Name The name Campum munitum, meaning fortified plain or field, had been used as early as 1091. By 1283 the name had been abbreviated to a similar form to the modern Chamonis. Other forms through the ages include Cha ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
