Central Eastern Alps

The Central Alps have the highest peaks of the Eastern Alps, and are located between the Northern Limestone Alps and the Southern Limestone Alps, from which they differ in geological composition.

The term "Central Eastern Alps" may also be used more broadly to refer to a larger area of the Eastern Alps, mainly located in Austria, extending from the foot of the Bergamasque Alps at Lake Como and the Bernina Range in the Graubünden canton of eastern Switzerland along the Liechtenstein shore of the Rhine in the west as far as to the lower promontories east of the Mur River including the Hochwechsel in Austrian Styria. The valleys of the rivers Inn, Salzach and Enns mark their northern boundary, the Drau river (roughly corresponding to the Periadriatic Seam) their southern border. In the proposed SOIUSA system, the "Central-eastern Alps" include the Rhaetian Alps, of which the Bernina Range includes the 4,049-meter Piz Bernina in Switzerland, the easternmost 4,000-meter peak of the Alps. In the AVE system, however, the full list of mountain groups in the Alpine Club classification of the Eastern Alps includes the Bernina and neighboring ranges within the Western Limestone Alps, not the Central Eastern Alps as the Alpine Club defines them.

In Austria, the Eastern Alps are divided into the Northern Alps, the Greywacke zone, the Central Alps and the Southern Alps. The latter lie in South Carinthia, but mainly in Northeast Italy.

The Central and Northern Alps are separated by the Northern Longitudinal Trough (nördliche Längstalfurche), the line Klostertal–Arlberg–Inn Valley–Salzach Valley as far as Lake Zell–Wagrain Heights–Upper Enns Valley–Schober Pass–Mürz Valley Alps–Semmering–southern Vienna Basin.[2] The Central Alps and Southern Alps are separated from one another by the Southern Longitudinal Valley (südlichen Längstalzug) Puster Valley (Rienz Valle–Toblach Field–upper Drava (Drau) Valley)–Drava Valley–Klagenfurt Basin–Meža (Mieß), or the Periadriatic Seam, which is not entirely identical with the Southern Longitudinal Trough.

The range has the highest summits in the Eastern Alps and is the most glaciated. In the transition zone between the East und West Alps its peaks clearly dominate the region to the west (Piz d'Err, Piz Roseg). On the perimeter, however, there are also less high, often less rugged mountain chains, like the Gurktal Alps and the eastern foothills.

The Eastern Alps is separated from the Western Alps by a line from Lake Constance to Lake Como along the Alpine Rhine valley and via the Splügen Pass.

Geological makeup of the Alps: The Central Alps are formed from the crystalline East Alpine 
and several windows, regional nappes and islands   

The Central Alps consist mainly of the gneiss and slate rocks of the various Austroalpine nappes (Lower and Upper Austroalpine), with the exception of the Hohe Tauern and Engadine windows, where they are composed mostly of Jurassic rock and limestones and, locally, (Bergell and Rieserferner) also of granite. The Austroalpine nappes are thrusted over the Penninic nappe stack. Massifs of autochthonous, crystalline rock, which hardly moved at all during Alpine folding, do not occur in the Central Alps – unlike the case in the Western Alps. The aforementioned granite intruded near the fracture zone of the Periadriatic Seam. The Western Alps do not have this division into the Northern Limestone Alps, Central Alps and Southern Limestone Alps.

The Austroalpine submerges itself at the eastern edge of the Alps under the Tertiary sediments of the Alpine Foreland in the east and the Pannonian Basin. This fracture zone exhibits active volcanism (e.g. in the Styrian thermal region).

AVE- No.	Name	Map	Country	Highest mountain	Height (m)	Image
25	Rätikon		Switzerland Austria Liechtenstein	Schesaplana	2,964
26	Silvretta Alps		Switzerland Austria	Piz Linard	3,411
27	Samnaun Alps		Austria Switzerland	Muttler	3,294
28	Verwall Alps		Austria	Hoher Riffler	3,168
29	Sesvenna Alps		Switzerland Italy Austria	Piz Sesvenna	3,204
30	Ötztal Alps		Austria Italy	Wildspitze	3,768
31	Stubai Alps		Austria Italy	Zuckerhütl	3,507
32	Sarntal Alps		Italy	Hirzer	2,781
33	Tux Alps		Austria	Lizumer Reckner	2,884
34	Kitzbühel Alps[lower-alpha 1]		Austria	Kreuzjoch	2,558
35	Zillertal Alps		Austria	Hochfeiler	3,510
36	Venediger Group		Austria	Großvenediger	3,666
37	Rieserferner Group		Italy Austria	Hochgall	3,436
38	Villgraten Mountains		Austria Italy	Weiße Spitze	2,962
39	Granatspitze Group		Austria	Großer Muntanitz	3,232
40	Glockner Group		Austria	Großglockner	3,798
41	Schober Group		Austria	Petzeck	3,283
42	Goldberg Group		Austria	Hocharn	3,254
43	Kreuzeck Group		Austria	Mölltaler Polinik	2,784
44	Ankogel Group		Austria	Hochalmspitze	3,360
45a	Radstadt Tauern		Austria	Weißeck	2,711
45b	Schladming Tauern		Austria	Hochgolling	2,862
45c	Rottenmann and Wölz Tauern		Austria	Rettlkirchspitze	2,475
45d	Seckau Tauern		Austria	Geierhaupt	2,417
46a	Gurktal Alps		Austria	Eisenhut	2,441
46b	Lavanttal Alps		Austria Slovenia	Zirbitzkogel	2,396
47	Prealps East of the Mur		Austria	Stuhleck	1,782

The Central Eastern Alps also comprise the following ranges of the West Eastern Alps according to AVE classification, which geologically belong to the Southern Alps and are also subsumed under the Western Limestone Alps division.:

AVE- No.	Name	Map	Country	Highest mountain	Height (m)	Image
63	Plessur Alps		Switzerland	Aroser Rothorn	2,980
64	Oberhalbstein Alps		Switzerland Italy	Piz Platta	3,392
65	Albula Alps		Switzerland	Piz Kesch	3,418
66	Bernina Group		Italy Switzerland	Piz Bernina	4,049
67	Livigno Alps		Italy Switzerland	Cima de’ Piazzi	3,439
68	Bergamasque Alps[lower-alpha 1]		Italy	Pizzo di Coca	3,052

The Ortler Alps as well as the Sobretta-Gavia Group are also sometimes classified with the Central Alps, because they lie north of the geological fault of the Periadriatic Seam; in a general regional geographic sense, however, they are seen as part of the Southern Limestone Alps, because they are found south of the longitudinal trough Veltlin (Adda)–Vintschgau (Etsch).[3] Also in terms of rock, the Ortler main crest is part of the Southern Limestone Alps.

• Geography of the Alps

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