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Introduction

Situated in the central part of Europe, Austria covers an area of About 84 000 km2 with an E-W-trending extension of about 570 km between the Rhine valley and Lake Constance to the W and the Neusiedlersee to the E. A maximum width of c. 300 km is reached in the E part. The Republic of Austria is divided into nine states each with a separate capital (Fig. 25): Vorarlberg (Bregenz), Tyrol (Innsbruck), Salzburg (Salzburg), Carinthia (Klagenfurt), Styria (Graz), Upper Austria (Lint), Lower Austria (St Pölten), Burgenland (Eisenstadt) and Vienna, the capital city of Austria. The neighboring countries are Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Germany, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia and Italy. Two-thirds of the country is occupied by the mountain ranges of the Eastern Alps with their highest summits in the W and central parts (Grossglockner, 3779 m). Towards the E, against the Hungarian Plain, the mountain ranges flatten and widen. To the E of Vienna, the transition takes...

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© 1997 Chapman & Hall

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Faupl, P. (1997). Austria. In: Encyclopedia of European and Asian Regional Geology. Encyclopedia of Earth Science. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-4495-X_7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-4495-X_7

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-0-412-74040-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4020-4495-3

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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