The Matterhorn, in the Alps. (Credit: iStockphoto)

The Alps are growing just as quickly in height as they are shrinking according to a new study by a group of German and Swiss geoscientists.Due to glaciers and rivers, about exactly the same amount of material is eroded from the slopes of the Alps as is regenerated from the deep Earth’s crust. In the latest volume of the science magazine Tectonophysics ( No. 474, S.236-249) the scientists show that today’s uplifting of the Alps is driven by  climatic variations.The Alps are constantly rising, although they have been deemed “dead” in a tectonic sense. Instead of plate forces it is the strong climatic variations since the beginning of the so-called quaternary glacial before approximately 2.5 million years, to which mountain slopes in particular have been reacting so sensitively. This holds the Alps in motion.

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