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The Wutach Gorge ((ドイツ語:Wutachschlucht)) is a narrow, steep-sided valley in southern Germany through in the upper reaches of the River Wutach with three gorge-like sections, the lowest of which is also called the ''Wutachflühen''. The gorge cuts through the southern part of the Baar region from the eastern side of the High Black Forest heading eastwards to the ''Trauf'' the steep, northwestern flank of the Swabian Jura, which transitions to the Randen mountains here. The 60- to 170-metre-deep gorges stretch for over 33 river kilometres (excluding side gorges) and are notable for many reasons. Their geologically young, prototypical and actively continuing development results in a great variety of geotopes and biotopes that support a correspondingly rich range of flora and fauna. The gorges are very popular with tourists and played an important role in the establishment of conservation consciousness in southwestern Germany. The Wutach Gorge is part of the Southern Black Forest Nature Park. == Course and character == The ravines start in the valley of the ''Gutach'' (the upper reaches of the Wutach) below Neustadt and in the valley of the ''Haslach'' below Lenzkirch. After they merge to form the ''Wutach'' they run, with small changes of direction, initially generally eastward and end at the village of Grimmelshofen in the municipality of Stühlingen after the Wutach turns sharply southwards in the area of the former mining town of Blumberg on meeting the steep slopes of the ''Baaralb''. Initially, the gorge is bordered by the wooded plateaus of the eastern slopes of the Black Forest. Later, its northern border is formed by the historical ''Bertholdsbaar'' with the population centre of Löffingen and the village of Rötenbach. To the south is a similar muschelkalk plateau with the settlements of Bonndorf and Wutach. Over a straight-line distance of barely 20 kilometres, the Wutach and several of its tributaries have cut a natural profile section through almost all of the strata of South German Scarplands, which fan out a further 200 kilometres to the north, but surface here in close succession. The Mesozoic rock layers were clearly inclined more steeply than usual here (on average 7%) by the uplifting of the southern Black Forest and have been cut through here in succession by the Wutach. Because the Wutach "only" descends through a gradient of around 1% as it flows eastward, increasingly younger rocks are encountered, each overlaid over its predecessor, as one progresses down the gorge. This has created a continuous sequence of rock outcrops from the basement (here mostly granite) through the Triassic to the Jurassic. As these rocks each produce their own peculiar and very different landforms when they are cut by vertical erosion, one of the most diversified and most interesting gorge landscapes in Central Europe has resulted. The gorges often transition seamlessly into wide valleys where it is hard to imagine that steep ravines are so nearby. Not only do the gorges themselves form their own natural regions, but the plateaux across which they cut have also been given the status of independent natural regional units. So the Central Wutach Region (''Mittlere Wutachgebiet'') lies between the natural regions of the Baar to the north and the Klettgau Hills (''Klettgauer Hügelland'') to the south, both of which are similar in terms of their bedrock. The region is also a bridge between the mountains of the Black Forest and the Swabian Jura. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア(Wikipedia)』 ■ウィキペディアで「Wutach Gorge」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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