Bratschen

Bratschen are weathering products that occur as a result of frost and aeolian corrasion almost exclusively on the calc-schists of the Upper Slate Mantle (Obere Schieferhülle) in the High Tauern mountains of Austria. The term is German.

The calc-schist, that appears blue-gray when freshly broken, weathers to a yellow to brown colour and flakes off on the surface to form Bratschen.^[1] These form steep (up to 40°), rocky, almost unvegetated mountainsides with an odd and rough-textured surface, caused by wind erosion. Bratschen are found on the mountains such as the Fuscherkarkopf, the Großer Bärenkopf, the Kitzsteinhorn, the Schwerteck or on the – eponymous – Bratschenköpfen.

References

1. ^ H. P. Cornelius, E. Clar: Erläuterungen zur geologischen Karte des Großglocknergebietes. In: Geologische Bundesanstalt — Wien III (ed.): Geologische Karte der Republik Österreich. 1935, p. 10 (pdf, geologie.ac.at; as at: 5 May 2010). 

Source

• Karl Krainer: Nationalpark Hohe Tauern GEOLOGIE – Wissenschaftliche Schriften. 2nd Auflage. Universitätsverlag Carinthia, Klagenfurt 2005, ISBN 3-85378-585-9, p. 140.