The wild and rugged Naiftal Valley
The train leaves the modern building of the valley station on time and floats up towards the high plateau. The ride in the spacious gondola is smooth and pleasantly quiet. It takes seven minutes to reach the top station. Just enough time to get an overview. Lush alpine rose and fir forests, bare rock, gentle green spaces, steeply rising peaks: the landscape is both rich in contrast and fascinating.
Between Bolzano quartz porphyry and Ifinger granite
Deep down in the gorge runs a striking geological fault line, the Naiftal Valley fault. Especially in the snow-free season, you can clearly see that two very different rocks lie next to each other here. Orographically on the right (in the northwest) the white Ifinger granite, orographically on the left (in the southeast) the red rocks of the Etschtal Valley volcanic complex, known as the Bolzano quartz porphyry. The red hue of the porphyry is also found in the façade of the valley and mountain station.
These rocks, belonging to the southern Alpine part of the Alps, were formed during the Permian period, more precisely 285 to 275 million years ago. This period was characterised by strong volcanic activity. The red volcanic rocks are solidified lavas, welded volcanic ashes and other ejected material from the Bolzano supervolcano, one of the largest volcanic areas in the world at that time. The striking red porphyry peaks in Vöran, such as the Rotsteinknott
(Knottnkino) and the Beimsteinknott, can also be traced back to this volcanic eruption. The light-coloured Ifinger granite, on the other hand, was formed at the same time at a depth of up to 10 km by solidification of the magma, without an eruption taking place. Only in geologically quite recent times, in the last 23 million years (in the Miocene), was the Ifinger massif lifted from the depths by the uplift of the Alps in the course of the collision of the African and European continental plates and pushed towards the southeast over the volcanic rocks. The enormous force and pressure caused the rocks to break and grind. Only then was it possible for erosion to create the impressive Naiftal Valley out of the hard rock.
Fault line of European significance
Another geological highlight close by is the border between the southern Alpine and eastern Alpine units, the so-called Periadriatic fault line. This most important tectonic fault line in the Alps is over 700 km long and stretches from Piedmont in the west to Slovenia in the east. Here it runs along the north-western slope of the Ifinger from Meran-Zenoberg via the Ifinger Hut and the Rötenbach south of Videgg to Lake Anteran and then down into the Sarntal valley to Weißenbach. At this fault, in the course of the formation of the Alps, the dark slates and gneisses of the Eastern Alps were pushed towards the southeast over the light Ifinger granite. Compared to the Naiftal fault, this geological activity took place somewhat earlier and at a greater depth at somewhat higher temperatures, which is why the rock is less friable. As a result, weathering was not able to carve out this structure so clearly. The colour contrast between the rocks is nevertheless easily recognisable in the terrain. If you climb the Ifinger from Schenna, you cross this fault zone above the Ifinger Hut.
The destructive power of the Naifbach river
The narrow, silver-grey ribbon of the Naifbach river is also recognisable, albeit mostly hidden behind forest and rock. It is hard to imagine that this seemingly modest watercourse, which rises high up on the Ifinger and winds its way down the valley for 11 km, was once the cause of devastating floods and landslides. Up to the 20th century, chronicles report of violent thunderstorms from the Ifinger, during which masses of water from the Naifbach river thundered down the narrow rocky gorge with trees, debris and mud, sweeping away houses, fields and roads along the way. Over the decades, the Naifbach river was tamed and robbed of its destructive power by the construction of sills and barriers and the reforestation of the areas.
Prayer for divine help in the face of bad weather
To this day, however, wayside shrines, memorial plaques and chapels in the Naif valley recall the events of that time: the Metzner wayside shrine, which bears witness to the rescue of the Metzner farmer from a Naif flood around the middle of the 18th century; the Naif chapel, which was built in the middle of the 19th century. The Naif chapel, which was built after 1698 to protect against floods, and last but not least the chapel in honour of the mighty
"weather lord" Oswald, which was built by the inhabitants of Hafling and Schenna in 1641 "to avert damaging high thunderstorms" at the bottom of the Ifinger, are just a few of the stone witnesses that hikers encounter today when they hike through the area.
Unique mineral treasures
The rocks at the foothills of the Ifinger also hold hidden treasures. Their formation can also be traced back to volcanic activity about 280 million years ago. Through the circulation of hot water, minerals were dissolved from the rock and redeposited in cavities and fissures in the form of a special variety of jasper. Bergerite, initially named after its finder, was discovered in 2007 by mineral collector Paul Berger in the Naiftal Valley. It consists of the elements silicon, oxygen and traces of iron and is assigned to the jasper family. Its red-furred veins in a rich green matrix make it a unique gemstone. Ten years later, the South Tyrolean goldsmith Konrad Laimer - a master jeweller who has been passionately researching the treasures of his homeland for years and incorporating them into his work - rediscovered this gemstone, now called Meranith. Laimer transforms the materials into pieces of jewellery that tell of their origins in a modern, clear and elegant language of form. As with his earlier collections, the jewellery artist has used the expressive power of the material in his Meranith creations to emphasise the uniqueness of the stone and firmly link it to the person wearing it.
Tip: Experience the geology of the Ifinger at first hand
550 metres in altitude, 1,000 m of steel rope: the Heini Holzer via ferrata runs entirely in the Ifinger granite. On the approach from the Meran 2000 mountain station you cross the Naiftal fault, whereas on the approach from the Ifinger Hut you cross the Periadriatic fault line.
Sources:
IVIGNA - Geschichten aus Hafling, Vöran und Meran 2000 (Ausgabe 2)
„Die Naif – Ein Wildbach schreibt Geschichte“, Dezember 2004, Autor: Walter Egger, Herausgeber: Heimatpflegeverein Obermais
Pomella, Hannah, et al. "The Northern Giudicarie and the Meran-Mauls fault (Alps, Northern Italy) in the light of new paleomagnetic and geochronological data from boudinaged Eo-/Oligocene tonalites." International Journal of Earth Sciences 100.8 (2011): 1827-1850.
Photos: TV Hafling-Vöran-Meran 2000, Manuel Kottersteger, Konrad Laimer