Umhausen

Geschichte

Umhausen is a municipality in the Imst district and is located 17 km southeast of Imst at the Ötztaler Ache in the Ötztal. It has 2913 inhabitants.GeographyThe municipality consists of six villages: UmhausenTumpenKöfelsFarstNiederthaiÖstenEconomyUmhausen was once a centre for cultivation of flax.Today the main source of income is tourism. In the area of the community lies the tallest waterfall of Tyrol at 150 metres of height.LandslideThe Köfels landslide was a gigantic landslide, known as a sturzstrom, that occurred in the Ötz valley approximately 9800±100 years ago according to radiocarbon dating of trees buried by the event. It involved a 2.5 km horizontal displacement and 800 m vertical displacement of 3.2 km3 of rock and mud along the Ötz valley floor, making it the third largest known sturzstrom.The British rocket engineer Alan Bond linked this geological evidence to Sumerian astronomical observations and hypothesised an asteroid impact as its cause.