Knowledge without frontiers Knowledge Without Frontiers | Page 93

An ammonite from the Triglav Lakes area.
Slovenian Museum of Natural History. Photo: Matija Križnar.
THE TRIGLAV VOLCANO?
In Zois’s time it was not yet perfectly clear
how the rocks that form the peaks of the Juli-
an Alps had formed. Some believed that the
peaks were created by volcanic activity, others
opposed this notion. The answer was provided
by Zois. In his quest to find iron ore deposits, he
financed two expeditions to the Alps that brou-
ght back ammonites, an extinct group of mari-
ne molluscs from the Mesozoic, from the Triglav
Lakes area. Zois was thus able to prove that the
rocks from the upper reaches of the Alps were
created by sedimentation in a marine envi-
ronment and were not of volcanic origin.
93