Marmolada Glacier: Mt. Sass Pordoi, Pass Pordoi, Sella Group, Dolomites, eastern alps Trentino Alto Adige - northern Italy
The Queen of the Dolomites, the highest summit in the entire range, offers more than beauty and mountaineering thrills: experts say the rocky massif's geological record of prehistoric sediments is outstanding in a global context. The Marmolada, a mountain with impressive vertical walls, includes the highest summit in the Dolomites - a 3,342 metre peak known as the Queen of the Dolomites. The Marmolada is the second of nine mountain groups included in a bid for Italy's Dolomite mountains to join the United Nation's World Heritage List as a natural heritage site of outstanding universal value. Located between the Trentino and Veneto regions in northeast Italy, the Marmolada covers 2,207 hectares and according to the IUCN stands out for offering the geological record of a Triassic sedimentary platform and overlying volcanic sediments. On the north side of the Marmolada is a comparatively flat glacier, the Marmolada Glacier, the only large glacier in the Dolomites. The Avalanches and Hydrogeological Defence Experimental Centre of Arabba in the Veneto region has been studying the ice in the Marmolada for the last thirty years as part of its climate change monitoring programme. The Marmolada, whose special beauty is enhanced by an array of forms and colours, is in a central position in the Dolomite range. The pale vertical limestone walls, set off against the darker deposits in the lower volcanic chains, create a unique landscape of geomorphologic contrasts. The late pope John Paul II, a great mountain lover, climbed the Marmolada on August 26, 1979 and gave the angelus service in a snow storm. From a mountaineering point of view, the south wall - more than 600 metres high - makes the Marmolada one of the most attractive to climbers.
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