Randy Olson, Melissa Farlow Photography

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Sunlight kisses a snow-dusted peak in the Dolomite Mountains. The mountain range in the northern Italian Alps numbers 18 peaks which rise to above 3,000 meters. The striking landscape features vertical walls, sheer cliffs and a high density of narrow, deep and long valleys. The geology is marked by steeples, pinnacles and rock walls, the site also contains glacial landforms and karst systems. The characteristic rock of the Dolomites consists of fossilised coral reefs formed during the Triassic Period (around 250 million years ago) by organisms and sedimentary matter at the bottom of the ancient tropical Tethys Ocean.

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MELISSA FARLOW
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4992x3328 / 4.6MB
Keywords
Contained in galleries
Alps_National Geographic magazine 2/2006
Sunlight kisses a snow-dusted peak in the Dolomite Mountains. The mountain range in the northern Italian Alps numbers 18 peaks which rise to above 3,000 meters. The striking landscape features vertical walls, sheer cliffs and a high density of narrow, deep and long valleys. The geology is marked by steeples, pinnacles and rock walls, the site also contains glacial landforms and karst systems. The characteristic rock of the Dolomites consists of fossilised coral reefs formed during the Triassic Period (around 250 million years ago) by organisms and sedimentary matter at the bottom of the ancient tropical Tethys Ocean.