The ground of the Aarnescht

Char­ac­ter­is­tics of a clay ground
Dur­ing arid peri­ods it is heav­i­ly cracked and after rain show­ers it can eas­i­ly been worked with the hands

The under­ground of the Aar­nescht, com­posed by com­pact marl sed­i­ments, brakes eas­i­ly into pieces and engen­dered marls made of clay and lime­stone. This kind of soil, called “Gritt” is char­ac­ter­is­tic for:

• its poor­ness of nutrients
• the very low con­cen­tra­tion of top soil (humus)
• its arid­ness
• its great capac­i­ty of heat strorage

High clay concentration

“Gritt” — the pre­dom­i­nant kind of ground on the Aarnescht

The high con­cen­tra­tion of clay engen­ders a strong earth crack­ing dur­ing dry sum­mers. After a rain show­er the grounds quick­ly swell, so that the cracks dis­ap­pear, forc­ing the waters to flow off, fore­closed to infil­trate the soil. The young seedlings are unable to grow on such a sur­face and the plants need a long time to cov­er the ground.

“Griechten”

Ero­sion cracks

The semi-arid grass­lands show impor­tant ero­sion cracks. Dur­ing heavy rain show­ers the water is flow­ing off by the lit­tle fis­sures, which came up dur­ing dry peri­ods. The top soil is con­stant­ly car­ried off and over the years the small fis­sures become large cracks with steep slopes called “Griecht­en”.

A special climate

The warm and arid cli­mate, the plants’ fra­grance and the insects’ buzzing con­fers a near­ly Mediter­ranean cli­mate to the Aarnescht.

The Aar­nescht has a typ­i­cal warm and arid cli­mate, influ­enc­ing the com­plex­ion of the sur­round­ing land­scape dur­ing the sea­sons. The inci­dent solar radi­a­tion on the south and south west slopes heats up and des­ic­cates the ground in sum­mer­time, and in spring the snow melts more quick­ly there as elsewhere.