Carpathian Mountains: Difference between revisions

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{{Redirect|Carpathian}}
{{Redirect|Carpathian}}
{{Distinguish|Karpathos|Montes Carpatus}}
{{Distinguish|Karpathos|Montes Carpatus}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2019}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2025}}
{{Infobox mountain
{{Infobox mountain
| name = Carpathians
| name = Carpathians
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| photo = Morskie Oko in 2020.jpg
| photo = Morskie Oko in 2020.jpg
| photo_size = 325px
| photo_size = 325px
| photo_caption = [[Tatra Mountains]] – [[Morskie Oko]], [[Mięguszowiecki Summits|Mengusovské štíty]], [[Cubryna]], [[Mnich (mountain)|Mnich]]
| photo_caption = [[Tatra Mountains]] – [[Morskie Oko]], [[Mięguszowiecki Summits]], [[Cubryna]], [[Mnich (mountain)|Mnich]]
| country = {{hlist|[[Czech Republic]]|[[Poland]]|[[Hungary]]|[[Austria]]|[[Slovakia]]|[[Ukraine]]|[[Romania]]|[[Serbia]]}}
| country = {{hlist|[[Czech Republic]]|[[Poland]]|[[Hungary]]|[[Austria]]|[[Slovakia]]|[[Ukraine]]|[[Romania]]|[[Serbia]]}}
| borders_on = [[Alps]]
| borders_on = [[Alps]]
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| width_km = 500
| width_km = 500
| width_orientation =  
| width_orientation =  
| highest = [[Gerlachovský štít]]
| highest = [[Gerlachovský štít]], Slovakia
| elevation_m = 2655
| elevation_m = 2655
| coordinates =  
| coordinates =  
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In the Scandinavian ''[[Hervarar saga]]'', which relates ancient Germanic legends about [[Hlöðskviða|battles]] between [[Goths]] and [[Huns]], the name ''Karpates'' appears in the predictable Germanic form as ''Harvaða fjöllum'' (see [[Grimm's law]]). "''Inter Alpes Huniae et Oceanum est Polonia''" ("Between the Hunic Alps and the ocean lies Poland") by [[Gervase of Tilbury]], was described in his ''Otia Imperialia'' ("Recreation for an Emperor") in 1211.<ref name=DNB/> Thirteenth- to fifteenth-century Hungarian documents named the mountains ''Thorchal'', ''Tarczal'', or less frequently ''Montes Nivium'' ("Snowy Mountains").<ref name=DNB>{{cite DNB|wstitle=Gervase of Tilbury}}</ref>
In the Scandinavian ''[[Hervarar saga]]'', which relates ancient Germanic legends about [[Hlöðskviða|battles]] between [[Goths]] and [[Huns]], the name ''Karpates'' appears in the predictable Germanic form as ''Harvaða fjöllum'' (see [[Grimm's law]]). "''Inter Alpes Huniae et Oceanum est Polonia''" ("Between the Hunic Alps and the ocean lies Poland") by [[Gervase of Tilbury]], was described in his ''Otia Imperialia'' ("Recreation for an Emperor") in 1211.<ref name=DNB/> Thirteenth- to fifteenth-century Hungarian documents named the mountains ''Thorchal'', ''Tarczal'', or less frequently ''Montes Nivium'' ("Snowy Mountains").<ref name=DNB>{{cite DNB|wstitle=Gervase of Tilbury}}</ref>


''Havasok'' ("Snowy Mountains") was its medieval [[Hungarian language|Hungarian]] name. Russian chronicles referred to it as "Hungarian Mountains".{{sfn|Blazovich|1994|p=332}}{{sfn|Moldovanu|2010|p=18}} Later sources, such as [[Dimitrie Cantemir]] and the Italian chronicler Giovanandrea Gromo, referred to the range as "Transylvania's Mountains", while the 17th-century historian [[Constantin Cantacuzino (stolnic)|Constantin Cantacuzino]] translated the name of the mountains in an Italian-Romanian glossary to "Rumanian Mountains".{{sfn|Moldovanu|2010|p=18}}
''Havasok'' ("Snowy Mountains") was its medieval [[Hungarian language|Hungarian]] name. [[Rus' chronicles]] referred to it as "Hungarian Mountains".{{sfn|Blazovich|1994|p=332}}{{sfn|Moldovanu|2010|p=18}} Later sources, such as [[Dimitrie Cantemir]] and the Italian chronicler Giovanandrea Gromo, referred to the range as "Transylvania's Mountains", while the 17th-century historian [[Constantin Cantacuzino (stolnic)|Constantin Cantacuzino]] translated the name of the mountains in an Italian-Romanian glossary to "Rumanian Mountains".{{sfn|Moldovanu|2010|p=18}}


===Etymology===
===Etymology===
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''Karpates'' is considered a [[Paleo-Balkan languages|Paleo-Balkan]] name, with evidence provided by the [[Albanian language|Albanian]] ''kárpë / kárpa'', pl. ''kárpa / kárpat'' ('rock, stiff'), and the [[Messapic language|Messapic]] ''karpa'' '[[tuff]] (rock), [[limestone]]' (preserved as ''càrpë'' 'tuff' in [[Bitonto]] dialect and ''càrparu'' 'limestone' in [[Salentino dialect|Salentino]]).<ref>{{cite journal|last=Matasović|first=Ranko|title=Skokove 'ilirske' etimologije|pages=89–101|journal=Folia onomastica Croatica|year=1995|issue=4|url=https://hrcak.srce.hr/158643|language=Croatian}} p. 96</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Demiraj|first=Bardhyl|title=Albanische Etymologien: Untersuchungen zum albanischen Erbwortschatz|series=Leiden Studies in Indo-European|volume=7|year=1997|language=de|place=Amsterdam, Atlanta|publisher=Rodopi|page=213}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Cortelazzo|first1=Manlio|last2=Marcato|first2=Carla|title=I dialetti italiani: dizionario etimologico, Volume 1|editor=Manlio Cortelazzo|chapter=càrpë|publisher=UTET|year=1998|isbn=978-88-02-05211-3|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=obQKAQAAMAAJ|page=120}}</ref><ref name=Çabej1972/><ref name=Çabej1985/>{{sfn|Buza|2011|p=24}} This connection is further supported by the fact that also the oronym ''[[Beskids|Beskydy]]'', a series of mountain ranges in the Carpathians, has a meaning in Albanian: ''bjeshkë / bjeshkët'' 'high mountains, mountain pastures' (cf. also the Albanian oronym ''Bjeshkët e Namuna'', the [[Accursed Mountains|Accursed Mountains / Albanian Alps]]).<ref name=Çabej1972>Çabej, Eqrem. (1972). Studime Filologjike. universiteti shtetëror i Tiranës.</ref><ref name=Çabej1985>{{cite book|last=Çabej|first=Eqrem|chapter=The Problem of the Place of Formation of the Albanian Language|title=The Albanians and their Territories|series=Academy of Sciences of Albania|year=1985|location=Tiranë|publisher=8 Nëntori|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gtFBAAAAYAAJ|pages=63–99}} p. 67.</ref>
''Karpates'' is considered a [[Paleo-Balkan languages|Paleo-Balkan]] name, with evidence provided by the [[Albanian language|Albanian]] ''kárpë / kárpa'', pl. ''kárpa / kárpat'' ('rock, stiff'), and the [[Messapic language|Messapic]] ''karpa'' '[[tuff]] (rock), [[limestone]]' (preserved as ''càrpë'' 'tuff' in [[Bitonto]] dialect and ''càrparu'' 'limestone' in [[Salentino dialect|Salentino]]).<ref>{{cite journal|last=Matasović|first=Ranko|title=Skokove 'ilirske' etimologije|pages=89–101|journal=Folia onomastica Croatica|year=1995|issue=4|url=https://hrcak.srce.hr/158643|language=Croatian}} p. 96</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Demiraj|first=Bardhyl|title=Albanische Etymologien: Untersuchungen zum albanischen Erbwortschatz|series=Leiden Studies in Indo-European|volume=7|year=1997|language=de|place=Amsterdam, Atlanta|publisher=Rodopi|page=213}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Cortelazzo|first1=Manlio|last2=Marcato|first2=Carla|title=I dialetti italiani: dizionario etimologico, Volume 1|editor=Manlio Cortelazzo|chapter=càrpë|publisher=UTET|year=1998|isbn=978-88-02-05211-3|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=obQKAQAAMAAJ|page=120}}</ref><ref name=Çabej1972/><ref name=Çabej1985/>{{sfn|Buza|2011|p=24}} This connection is further supported by the fact that also the oronym ''[[Beskids|Beskydy]]'', a series of mountain ranges in the Carpathians, has a meaning in Albanian: ''bjeshkë / bjeshkët'' 'high mountains, mountain pastures' (cf. also the Albanian oronym ''Bjeshkët e Namuna'', the [[Accursed Mountains|Accursed Mountains / Albanian Alps]]).<ref name=Çabej1972>Çabej, Eqrem. (1972). Studime Filologjike. universiteti shtetëror i Tiranës.</ref><ref name=Çabej1985>{{cite book|last=Çabej|first=Eqrem|chapter=The Problem of the Place of Formation of the Albanian Language|title=The Albanians and their Territories|series=Academy of Sciences of Albania|year=1985|location=Tiranë|publisher=8 Nëntori|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gtFBAAAAYAAJ|pages=63–99}} p. 67.</ref>


The name ''Carpates'' may ultimately be from the [[Proto-Indo-European language|Proto Indo-European]] root ''*sker-''/''*ker-'', which meant mountain, rock, or rugged (cf. Albanian ''kárpë'', Germanic root ''*skerp-'', Old Norse {{lang|non|harfr}} "harrow", Gothic ''skarpo'', Middle Low German ''scharf'' "potsherd", and Modern High German ''Scherbe'' "shard", Lithuanian ''kar~pas'' "cut, hack, notch", Latvian ''cìrpt'' "to shear, clip").<ref name="Room, Adrian 1997">{{cite book |first=Adrian |last=Room |title=Placenames of the World |publisher=MacFarland and Co |location= |date=1997 |isbn=0-7864-0172-9 |oclc=36045929}}</ref>  The archaic Polish word ''karpa'' meant 'rugged irregularities, underwater obstacles/rocks, rugged roots, or trunks'. The more common word ''skarpa'' means a sharp cliff or other vertical terrain, cf. Old English {{lang|ang|scearp}} and English ''sharp''. The name may instead come from Indo-European *{{Transliteration|ine|kwerp}} 'to turn', akin to Old English {{lang|ang|hweorfan}} 'to turn, change' (English ''warp'') and Greek {{lang|grc|καρπός}} {{Transliteration|grc|karpós}} 'wrist', perhaps referring to the way the mountain range bends or veers in an L-shape.<ref name="Room, Adrian 1997"/>
The name ''Carpates'' may ultimately be from the [[Proto-Indo-European language|Proto Indo-European]] root ''*sker-''/''*ker-'', which meant mountain, rock, or rugged (cf. Albanian ''kárpë'', Germanic root ''*skerp-'', Old Norse {{lang|non|harfr}} "harrow", Gothic ''skarpo'', Middle Low German ''scharf'' "potsherd", and Modern High German ''Scherbe'' "shard", Lithuanian ''kar~pas'' "cut, hack, notch", Latvian ''cìrpt'' "to shear, clip").<ref name="Room, Adrian 1997">{{cite book |first=Adrian |last=Room |title=Placenames of the World |publisher=MacFarland and Co |location= |date=1997 |isbn=0-7864-0172-9 |oclc=36045929}}</ref>  The archaic Polish word ''karpa'' meant 'rugged irregularities, underwater obstacles/rocks, rugged roots, or trunks'. The more common word ''skarpa'' means a sharp cliff or other vertical terrain, cf. Old English {{lang|ang|scearp}} and English ''sharp''.
 
The name may instead come from Indo-European *{{Transliteration|ine|kwerp}} 'to turn', akin to Old English {{lang|ang|hweorfan}} 'to turn, change' (English ''warp'') and Greek {{lang|grc|καρπός}} {{Transliteration|grc|karpós}} 'wrist' ([[Karpathos]] island has the same root word), perhaps referring to the way the Carpathian mountain range bends or veers in an L-shape.<ref name="Room, Adrian 1997" />


== Geography ==
== Geography ==
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== Geology ==
== Geology ==
[[File:Békás-szoros.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|Bicaz Canyon]]
[[File:Békás-szoros.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|Bicaz Canyon]]
The area now occupied by the Carpathians was once occupied by smaller ocean basins. The Carpathian mountains were formed during the [[Alpine orogeny]] in the [[Mesozoic]]<ref>{{cite journal |first=D. |last=Plašienka |title=Origin and growth of the Western Carpathian orogenetic wedge during the mesozoic |journal=Geologica Carpathica |volume=53 |date=2002 |url=https://geologicacarpathica.com/data/files/files/special%20issue/P/Plasienka.pdf}}</ref> and [[Cenozoic]] by moving the [[ALCAPA (tectonic plate)|ALCAPA]] (Alpine-Carpathian-Pannonian), [[Tisza Plate|Tisza]] and [[Dacia Plate|Dacia]] plates over [[subduction|subducting]] [[oceanic crust]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Mantovani |first=E. |last2=Viti |first2=M. |last3=Babbucci |first3=D. |last4=Tamburelli |first4=C. |last5=Albarello |first5=D. |chapter=Geodynamic connection between the indentation of Arabia and the Neogene tectonics of the central–eastern Mediterranean region |chapter-url=https://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/gsa/books/edited-volume/583/chapter-abstract/3803612/Geodynamic-connection-between-the-indentation-of |doi=10.1130/2006.2409(02) |editor-first=Y. |editor-last=Dilek |editor2-first=S. |editor2-last=Pavlides |title=Postcollisional Tectonics and Magmatism in the Mediterranean Region and Asia |publisher=Geological Society of America |date=2006 |isbn=978-0-8137-2409-6 |oclc=65425994 |series=Special Papers |volume=409}}</ref>
The area now occupied by the Carpathians was once occupied by smaller ocean basins. The Carpathian mountains were formed during the [[Alpine orogeny]] in the [[Mesozoic]]<ref>{{cite journal |first=D. |last=Plašienka |title=Origin and growth of the Western Carpathian orogenetic wedge during the mesozoic |journal=Geologica Carpathica |volume=53 |date=2002 |url=https://geologicacarpathica.com/data/files/files/special%20issue/P/Plasienka.pdf}}</ref> and [[Cenozoic]] by moving the [[ALCAPA (tectonic plate)|ALCAPA]] (Alpine-Carpathian-Pannonian), [[Tisza Plate|Tisza]] and [[Dacia Plate|Dacia]] plates over [[subduction|subducting]] [[oceanic crust]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Mantovani |first1=E. |last2=Viti |first2=M. |last3=Babbucci |first3=D. |last4=Tamburelli |first4=C. |last5=Albarello |first5=D. |chapter=Geodynamic connection between the indentation of Arabia and the Neogene tectonics of the central–eastern Mediterranean region |chapter-url=https://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/gsa/books/edited-volume/583/chapter-abstract/3803612/Geodynamic-connection-between-the-indentation-of |doi=10.1130/2006.2409(02) |editor-first=Y. |editor-last=Dilek |editor2-first=S. |editor2-last=Pavlides |title=Postcollisional Tectonics and Magmatism in the Mediterranean Region and Asia |publisher=Geological Society of America |date=2006 |isbn=978-0-8137-2409-6 |oclc=65425994 |series=Special Papers |volume=409}}</ref>


The mountains take the form of a [[fold and thrust belt]] with generally north [[Vergence (geology)|vergence]] in the western segment, northeast to east vergence in the eastern portion and southeast vergence in the southern portion. Currently, the area is the most seismically active in Central Europe.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Braclawska |first1=Agnieszka |last2=Idziak |first2=Adam Filip |title=Unification of data from various seismic catalogues to study seismic activity in the Carpathians Mountain arc |journal=Open Geosciences |date=1 January 2019 |volume=11 |issue=1 |pages=837–842 |doi=10.1515/geo-2019-0065 |bibcode=2019OGeo...11...65B |url=https://doi.org/10.1515/geo-2019-0065 |language=en |issn=2391-5447|hdl=20.500.12128/11936 |s2cid=208868314 |hdl-access=free }}</ref>
The mountains take the form of a [[fold and thrust belt]] with generally north [[Vergence (geology)|vergence]] in the western segment, northeast to east vergence in the eastern portion and southeast vergence in the southern portion. Currently, the area is the most seismically active in Central Europe.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Braclawska |first1=Agnieszka |last2=Idziak |first2=Adam Filip |title=Unification of data from various seismic catalogues to study seismic activity in the Carpathians Mountain arc |journal=Open Geosciences |date=1 January 2019 |volume=11 |issue=1 |pages=837–842 |doi=10.1515/geo-2019-0065 |bibcode=2019OGeo...11...65B |url=https://doi.org/10.1515/geo-2019-0065 |language=en |issn=2391-5447|hdl=20.500.12128/11936 |s2cid=208868314 |hdl-access=free }}</ref>


The external, generally northern, portion of the orogenic belt is a Tertiary [[accretionary wedge]] of a so-called [[Flysch|Flysch belt]] (the [[Carpathian Flysch Belt]]) created by rocks scraped off the sea bottom and thrust over the North-European plate. The Carpathian accretionary wedge is made of several thin skinned [[nappe]]s composed of Cretaceous to Paleogene [[turbidite]]s. Thrusting of the Flysch nappes over the Carpathian foreland caused the formation of the [[Carpathian foreland basin]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Nehyba |first1=S. |last2=Šikula |first2=J. |title=Depositional architecture, sequence stratigraphy and geodynamic development of the Carpathian Foredeep (Czech Republic) |journal=Geologica Carpathica |volume=58 |issue=1 |pages=53–69 |date=2007 |url=https://www.sav.sk/journals/uploads/05231049GeolCarp_Vol58_No1_53_69.pdf}}</ref> The boundary between the Flysch belt and internal zones of the orogenic belt in the western segment of the mountain range is marked by the [[Pieniny Klippen Belt]], a narrow complicated zone of polyphase compressional deformation, later involved in a supposed [[strike-slip]] zone.<ref>{{cite journal |first=M. |last=Mišík |title=The Slovak Part of the Pieniny Klippen Belt After the Pioneering Works of D. Andrusov |journal=Geologica Carpathica |volume=48 |issue=4 |pages=209–220 |date=1997 |doi= |url=https://www.sav.sk/journals/uploads/04290929GeolCarp_Vol48_No4_209_220.pdf}}</ref>
The external, generally northern, portion of the orogenic belt is a Tertiary [[accretionary wedge]] of a so-called [[Flysch|Flysch belt]] (the [[Carpathian Flysch Belt]]) created by rocks scraped off the sea bottom and thrust over the North-European plate. The Carpathian accretionary wedge is made of several thin skinned [[nappe]]s composed of Cretaceous to Paleogene [[turbidite]]s. Thrusting of the Flysch nappes over the Carpathian foreland caused the formation of the Carpathian [[foreland basin]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Nehyba |first1=S. |last2=Šikula |first2=J. |title=Depositional architecture, sequence stratigraphy and geodynamic development of the Carpathian Foredeep (Czech Republic) |journal=Geologica Carpathica |volume=58 |issue=1 |pages=53–69 |date=2007 |url=https://www.sav.sk/journals/uploads/05231049GeolCarp_Vol58_No1_53_69.pdf}}</ref> The boundary between the Flysch belt and internal zones of the orogenic belt in the western segment of the mountain range is marked by the [[Pieniny Klippen Belt]], a narrow complicated zone of polyphase compressional deformation, later involved in a supposed [[strike-slip]] zone.<ref>{{cite journal |first=M. |last=Mišík |title=The Slovak Part of the Pieniny Klippen Belt After the Pioneering Works of D. Andrusov |journal=Geologica Carpathica |volume=48 |issue=4 |pages=209–220 |date=1997 |doi= |url=https://www.sav.sk/journals/uploads/04290929GeolCarp_Vol48_No4_209_220.pdf}}</ref>


[[File:Bucegi jepiimici.JPG|thumb|upright=1.3|[[Bucegi Mountains]] in [[Romania]]]]
[[File:Bucegi jepiimici.JPG|thumb|upright=1.3|[[Bucegi Mountains]] in [[Romania]]]]
Internal zones in western and eastern segments contain older [[Variscan]] igneous massifs reworked in Mesozoic [[Thick-skinned deformation|thick]] and thin-skinned nappes. During the Middle [[Miocene]] this zone was affected by intensive [[calc-alkaline]]<ref name="Pácskay, Z. 2006, pp. 511 - 530">{{cite journal |last1=Pácskay |first1=Z. |last2=Lexa |first2=J. |last3=Szákacs |first3=A. |title=Geochronology of Neogene magmatism in the Carpathian arc and intra-Carpathian area |journal=Geologica Carpathica |volume=57 |issue=6 |pages=511–530 |date=2006 |doi= |url=https://www.academia.edu/download/76427110/pdf5973.pdf}}</ref> [[arc volcanism]] that developed over the subduction zone of the flysch basins. At the same time, the internal zones of the orogenic belt were affected by large extensional structure<ref>{{cite web |first=G.L. |last=Dolton |title=Pannonian Basin Province, Central Europe (Province 4808)—Petroleum geology, total petroleum systems, and petroleum resource assessment |date=2006 |id=2204–B |publisher=U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin |url=https://pubs.usgs.gov/publication/b2204B}}</ref> of the [[back-arc basin|back-arc]] [[Pannonian Basin]].<ref>{{cite journal |author-link1=Leigh Royden |last1=Royden |first1=L.H. |last2=Horváth |first2=F. |last3=Rumpler |first3=J. |title=Evolution of the Pannonian basin system. 1. Tectonics |journal=Tectonics |volume=2 |issue=1 |pages=61–90 |date=1983 |doi=10.1029/TC002i001p00063 |bibcode=1983Tecto...2...63R }}</ref> The last volcanic activity occurred at [[Ciomadul]] about 30,000 years ago.<ref name="Pácskay, Z. 2006, pp. 511 - 530"/>
Internal zones in western and eastern segments contain older [[Variscan]] igneous massifs reworked in Mesozoic [[Thick-skinned deformation|thick]] and [[Thin-skinned deformation|thin-skinned]] nappes. During the Middle [[Miocene]] this zone was affected by intensive [[calc-alkaline]]<ref name="Pácskay, Z. 2006, pp. 511 - 530">{{cite journal |last1=Pácskay |first1=Z. |last2=Lexa |first2=J. |last3=Szákacs |first3=A. |title=Geochronology of Neogene magmatism in the Carpathian arc and intra-Carpathian area |journal=Geologica Carpathica |volume=57 |issue=6 |pages=511–530 |date=2006 |doi= |url=https://www.academia.edu/download/76427110/pdf5973.pdf}}</ref> [[arc volcanism]] that developed over the subduction zone of the flysch basins. At the same time, the internal zones of the orogenic belt were affected by large extensional structure<ref>{{cite web |first=G.L. |last=Dolton |title=Pannonian Basin Province, Central Europe (Province 4808)—Petroleum geology, total petroleum systems, and petroleum resource assessment |date=2006 |id=2204–B |publisher=U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin |url=https://pubs.usgs.gov/publication/b2204B}}</ref> of the [[back-arc basin|back-arc]] [[Pannonian Basin]].<ref>{{cite journal |author-link1=Leigh Royden |last1=Royden |first1=L.H. |last2=Horváth |first2=F. |last3=Rumpler |first3=J. |title=Evolution of the Pannonian basin system. 1. Tectonics |journal=Tectonics |volume=2 |issue=1 |pages=61–90 |date=1983 |doi=10.1029/TC002i001p00063 |bibcode=1983Tecto...2...63R }}</ref> The last volcanic activity occurred at [[Ciomadul]] about 30,000 years ago.<ref name="Pácskay, Z. 2006, pp. 511 - 530"/>


The mountains started to gain their current shape from the latest [[Miocene]] onward.<ref name=Starkel1969>{{Cite journal|title=L'évolution des versants des Carpates à flysch au quaternaire|journal=[[Biuletyn Peryglacjalny]]|last=Starkel|first=Leszek|volume=18|pages=349–379|year=1969|language=French}}</ref> The slopes of the Carphartian contain at some locations [[solifluction]] deposits.<ref name=Starkel1969/> Iron, gold and silver were found in great quantities{{vague|date=September 2022}} in the [[Western Carpathians]]. After the Roman emperor [[Trajan]]'s conquest of Dacia, he brought back to Rome over 165 tons of gold and 330 tons of silver.<ref>{{cite web|title=Dacia-Province of the Roman Empire |publisher=United Nations of Roma Victor |url=http://www.unrv.com/province/dacia.php |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190713142104/https://www.unrv.com/province/dacia.php |url-status=dead |archive-date=13 July 2019 |access-date=14 November 2010 }}</ref>
The mountains started to gain their current shape from the latest [[Miocene]] onward.<ref name=Starkel1969>{{Cite journal|title=L'évolution des versants des Carpates à flysch au quaternaire|journal=[[Biuletyn Peryglacjalny]]|last=Starkel|first=Leszek|volume=18|pages=349–379|year=1969|language=French}}</ref> At some locations [[solifluction]] deposits have formed on the slopes of the Carpathians.<ref name=Starkel1969/> Iron, gold and silver were found in great quantities{{vague|date=September 2022}} in the [[Western Carpathians]]. After the Roman emperor [[Trajan]]'s conquest of Dacia, he brought back to Rome over 165 tons of gold and 330 tons of silver.<ref>{{cite web|title=Dacia-Province of the Roman Empire |publisher=United Nations of Roma Victor |url=http://www.unrv.com/province/dacia.php |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190713142104/https://www.unrv.com/province/dacia.php |url-status=dead |archive-date=13 July 2019 |access-date=14 November 2010 }}</ref>


==Ecology==
==Ecology==
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The ecology of the Carpathians varies with altitude, ranging from lowland forests to alpine meadows. Foothill forests are primarily of broadleaf deciduous trees, including oak, hornbeam, and linden. [[Fagus sylvatica|European beech]] is characteristic of the montane forest zone. Higher-elevation subalpine forests are characterized by [[Picea abies|Norway spruce]] (''Picea abies''). [[Krummholz]] and alpine meadows occur above the treeline.<ref name = wwf>{{WWF ecoregion|name=Carpathian montane conifer forests|id=pa0504}}</ref>
The ecology of the Carpathians varies with altitude, ranging from lowland forests to alpine meadows. Foothill forests are primarily of broadleaf deciduous trees, including oak, hornbeam, and linden. [[Fagus sylvatica|European beech]] is characteristic of the montane forest zone. Higher-elevation subalpine forests are characterized by [[Picea abies|Norway spruce]] (''Picea abies''). [[Krummholz]] and alpine meadows occur above the treeline.<ref name = wwf>{{WWF ecoregion|name=Carpathian montane conifer forests|id=pa0504}}</ref>


Wildlife in the Carpathians includes [[brown bear]] (''Ursus arctos''), [[wolf]] (''Canis lupus''), [[Eurasian lynx]] (''Lynx lynx''), [[European wildcat]] (''Felis silvestris''), [[Tatra chamois]] (''Rupicapra rupicapra tatrica''), [[European bison]] (''Bison bonasus''), and [[golden eagle]] (''Aquila chrysaetos'').<ref name = wwf/>
Wildlife in the Carpathians includes [[Eurasian brown bear]] (''Ursus arctos arctos''), [[Eurasian wolf]] (''Canis lupus lupus''), [[Eurasian lynx]] (''Lynx lynx''), [[European wildcat]] (''Felis silvestris''), [[Tatra chamois]] (''Rupicapra rupicapra tatrica''), [[European bison]] (''Bison bonasus''), and [[golden eagle]] (''Aquila chrysaetos'').<ref name = wwf/>


==Divisions of the Carpathians==
==Divisions of the Carpathians==
{{main|Divisions of the Carpathians}}
{{main|Divisions of the Carpathians}}
[[File:mapcarpat2.png|right|thumb|upright=1.35|A map of the main divisions of the Carpathians. {{olist
[[File:mapcarpat2.png|right|thumb|upright=1.35|A map of the main divisions of the Carpathians. {{olist|item_style=margin-bottom: 0
     |[[Outer Western Carpathians]]
     |[[Outer Western Carpathians]]
     |[[Inner Western Carpathians]]
     |[[Inner Western Carpathians]]
Line 166: Line 168:
|-
|-
| [[Gerlachovský štít]]
| [[Gerlachovský štít]]
| [[High Tatras]]
| rowspan="15" | [[High Tatras]]
| [[Slovakia]]
| rowspan="15" | [[Slovakia]]
| [[Prešov Region]]
| rowspan="15" | [[Prešov Region]]
| {{convert|2655|m|disp=table}}
| {{convert|2655|m|disp=table}}
|-
|-
| [[Gerlachovská veža]]
| [[Gerlachovská veža]]
| [[High Tatras]]
| [[Slovakia]]
| [[Prešov Region]]
| {{convert|2642|m|disp=table}}
| {{convert|2642|m|disp=table}}
|-
|-
| [[Lomnický štít]]
| [[Lomnický štít]]
| [[High Tatras]]
| [[Slovakia]]
| [[Prešov Region]]
| {{convert|2633|m|disp=table}}
| {{convert|2633|m|disp=table}}
|-
|-
| [[Ľadový štít]]
| [[Ľadový štít]]
| [[High Tatras]]
| [[Slovakia]]
| [[Prešov Region]]
| {{convert|2627|m|disp=table}}
| {{convert|2627|m|disp=table}}
|-
|-
| Pyšný štít
| Pyšný štít
| [[High Tatras]]
| [[Slovakia]]
| [[Prešov Region]]
| {{convert|2623|m|disp=table}}
| {{convert|2623|m|disp=table}}
|-
|-
| Zadný Gerlach
| Zadný Gerlach
| [[High Tatras]]
| [[Slovakia]]
| [[Prešov Region]]
| {{convert|2616|m|disp=table}}
| {{convert|2616|m|disp=table}}
|-
|-
| Lavínový štít
| Lavínový štít
| [[High Tatras]]
| [[Slovakia]]
| [[Prešov Region]]
| {{convert|2606|m|disp=table}}
| {{convert|2606|m|disp=table}}
|-
|-
| Malý Ľadový štít
| Malý Ľadový štít
| [[High Tatras]]
| [[Slovakia]]
| [[Prešov Region]]
| {{convert|2602|m|disp=table}}
| {{convert|2602|m|disp=table}}
|-
|-
| Kotlový štít
| Kotlový štít
| [[High Tatras]]
| [[Slovakia]]
| [[Prešov Region]]
| {{convert|2601|m|disp=table}}
| {{convert|2601|m|disp=table}}
|-
|-
| Lavínová veža
| Lavínová veža
| [[High Tatras]]
| [[Slovakia]]
| [[Prešov Region]]
| {{convert|2600|m|disp=table}}
| {{convert|2600|m|disp=table}}
|-
|-
| Malý Pyšný štít
| Malý Pyšný štít
| [[High Tatras]]
| [[Slovakia]]
| [[Prešov Region]]
| {{convert|2591|m|disp=table}}
| {{convert|2591|m|disp=table}}
|-
|-
| Veľká Litvorová veža
| Veľká Litvorová veža
| [[High Tatras]]
| [[Slovakia]]
| [[Prešov Region]]
| {{convert|2581|m|disp=table}}
| {{convert|2581|m|disp=table}}
|-
|-
| Strapatá veža
| Strapatá veža
| [[High Tatras]]
| [[Slovakia]]
| [[Prešov Region]]
| {{convert|2565|m|disp=table}}
| {{convert|2565|m|disp=table}}
|-
|-
| Kežmarský štít
| Kežmarský štít
| [[High Tatras]]
| [[Slovakia]]
| [[Prešov Region]]
| {{convert|2556|m|disp=table}}
| {{convert|2556|m|disp=table}}
|-
|-
| [[Vysoká (Tatra mountain)|Vysoká]]
| [[Vysoká (Tatra mountain)|Vysoká]]
| [[High Tatras]]
| [[Slovakia]]
| [[Prešov Region]]
| {{convert|2547|m|disp=table}}
| {{convert|2547|m|disp=table}}
|-
|-
| [[Moldoveanu]]
| [[Moldoveanu]]
| [[Făgăraș Mountains]]
| rowspan="3" | [[Făgăraș Mountains]]
| [[Romania]]
| rowspan="11" | [[Romania]]
| [[Argeș County|Argeș]]
| [[Argeș County|Argeș]]
| {{convert|2544|m|disp=table}}
| {{convert|2544|m|disp=table}}
|-
|-
| [[Negoiu]]
| [[Negoiu]]
| [[Făgăraș Mountains]]
| [[Romania]]
| [[Sibiu County|Sibiu]]
| [[Sibiu County|Sibiu]]
| {{convert|2535|m|disp=table}}
| {{convert|2535|m|disp=table}}
|-
|-
| [[Viștea Mare]]
| [[Viștea Mare]]
| [[Făgăraș Mountains]]
| [[Romania]]
| [[Brașov County|Brașov]]
| [[Brașov County|Brașov]]
| {{convert|2527|m|disp=table}}
| {{convert|2527|m|disp=table}}
Line 275: Line 231:
| [[Parângu Mare]]
| [[Parângu Mare]]
| [[Parâng Mountains]]
| [[Parâng Mountains]]
| [[Romania]]
| [[Alba County|Alba]], [[Gorj County|Gorj]], [[Hunedoara County|Hunedoara]]
| [[Alba County|Alba]], [[Gorj County|Gorj]], [[Hunedoara County|Hunedoara]]
| {{convert|2519|m|disp=table}}
| {{convert|2519|m|disp=table}}
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| [[Lespezi (mountain)|Lespezi]]
| [[Lespezi (mountain)|Lespezi]]
| [[Făgăraș Mountains]]
| [[Făgăraș Mountains]]
| [[Romania]]
| [[Sibiu County|Sibiu]]
| [[Sibiu County|Sibiu]]
| {{convert|2517|m|disp=table}}
| {{convert|2517|m|disp=table}}
|-
|-
| [[Peleaga]]
| [[Peleaga]]
| [[Retezat Mountains]]
| rowspan="2" | [[Retezat Mountains]]
| [[Romania]]
| rowspan="2" | [[Hunedoara County|Hunedoara]]
| [[Hunedoara County|Hunedoara]]
| {{convert|2509|m|disp=table}}
| {{convert|2509|m|disp=table}}
|-
|-
| [[Păpușa]]
| [[Păpușa]]
| [[Retezat Mountains]]
| [[Romania]]
| [[Hunedoara County|Hunedoara]]
| {{convert|2508|m|disp=table}}
| {{convert|2508|m|disp=table}}
|-
|-
| [[Vânătoarea lui Buteanu]]
| [[Vânătoarea lui Buteanu]]
| [[Făgăraș Mountains]]
| [[Făgăraș Mountains]]
| [[Romania]]
| [[Argeș County|Argeș]]
| [[Argeș County|Argeș]]
| {{convert|2507|m|disp=table}}
| {{convert|2507|m|disp=table}}
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| Omu (mountain)
| Omu (mountain)
| [[Bucegi Mountains]]
| [[Bucegi Mountains]]
| [[Romania]]
| [[Prahova County|Prahova]], [[Brașov County|Brașov]], [[Dâmbovița County|Dâmbovița]]
| [[Prahova County|Prahova]], [[Brașov County|Brașov]], [[Dâmbovița County|Dâmbovița]]
| {{convert|2514|m|disp=table}}
| {{convert|2514|m|disp=table}}
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| Cornul Călțunului
| Cornul Călțunului
| [[Făgăraș Mountains]]
| [[Făgăraș Mountains]]
| [[Romania]]
| [[Sibiu County|Sibiu]]
| [[Sibiu County|Sibiu]]
| {{convert|2505|m|disp=table}}
| {{convert|2505|m|disp=table}}
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| Ocolit (Bucura)
| Ocolit (Bucura)
| [[Bucegi Mountains]]
| [[Bucegi Mountains]]
| [[Romania]]
| [[Prahova County|Prahova]], [[Brașov County|Brașov]], [[Dâmbovița County|Dâmbovița]]
| [[Prahova County|Prahova]], [[Brașov County|Brașov]], [[Dâmbovița County|Dâmbovița]]
| {{convert|2503|m|disp=table}}
| {{convert|2503|m|disp=table}}
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* {{Cite journal |last=Moldovanu |first=Dragoș |title=Toponimie de origine Romană în Transilvania și în sud-vestul Moldovei |journal=Anuar de Lingvistică și Istorie Literară |volume=XLIX-L |pages=17–95 |publisher=Institute of Geography, Romanian Academy |year=2010 |url=http://www.alil.ro/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Toponime-de-origine-roman%C4%83-%C3%AEn-Transilvania-%C5%9Fi-%C3%AEn-sud-vestul-Moldovei.pdf |access-date=27 June 2015 |language=ro |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305184711/http://www.alil.ro/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Toponime-de-origine-roman%C4%83-%C3%AEn-Transilvania-%C5%9Fi-%C3%AEn-sud-vestul-Moldovei.pdf |archive-date=5 March 2016 |url-status=dead }}
* {{Cite journal |last=Moldovanu |first=Dragoș |title=Toponimie de origine Romană în Transilvania și în sud-vestul Moldovei |journal=Anuar de Lingvistică și Istorie Literară |volume=XLIX-L |pages=17–95 |publisher=Institute of Geography, Romanian Academy |year=2010 |url=http://www.alil.ro/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Toponime-de-origine-roman%C4%83-%C3%AEn-Transilvania-%C5%9Fi-%C3%AEn-sud-vestul-Moldovei.pdf |access-date=27 June 2015 |language=ro |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305184711/http://www.alil.ro/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Toponime-de-origine-roman%C4%83-%C3%AEn-Transilvania-%C5%9Fi-%C3%AEn-sud-vestul-Moldovei.pdf |archive-date=5 March 2016 |url-status=dead }}
{{Refend}}
{{Refend}}
== Further reading ==
* Tóth, Kata. "Invisible Mountains? The Eastern and Southern Carpathians and their Environmental History (Fourteenth–Seventeenth Centuries)".  ''Environment and History'' (August 2025), 31#3: 327–349. [https://liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/doi/abs/10.3828/whp.eh.63830915903578?ai=aqt0&ui=cymc&af=T  online]


==External links==
==External links==

Latest revision as of 13:32, 1 November 2025

Template:Short description Script error: No such module "redirect hatnote". Script error: No such module "Distinguish". Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox mountain

File:Castris rubris tabula peutingeriana1.jpg
The Eastern Carpathians as 'Alpes Bastarnice' on Tabula Peutingeriana

The Carpathian Mountains or Carpathians (Template:IPAc-en) are a range of mountains forming an arc across Central Europe and Southeast Europe. Roughly Template:Convert long, it is the third-longest European mountain range after the Urals at Template:Convert and the Scandinavian Mountains at Template:Convert. The highest peaks in the Carpathians are in the Tatra Mountains, exceeding Template:Convert, closely followed by those in the Southern Carpathians in Romania, exceeding Template:Convert.

The range stretches from the Western Carpathians in Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Poland, clockwise through the Eastern Carpathians in Ukraine and Romania, to the Southern Carpathians in Romania and Serbia.[1][2][3][4] The term Outer Carpathians is frequently used to describe the northern rim of the Western and Eastern Carpathians.

The Carpathians provide habitat for the largest European populations of brown bears, wolves, chamois, and lynxes, with the highest concentration in Romania,[5][6][7] as well as over one-third of all European plant species.[8] The mountains and their foothills also have many thermal and mineral waters, with Romania having one-third of the European total.[9][10]

Romania is likewise home to the second-largest area of virgin forests in Europe after Russia, totaling 250,000 hectares (65%), most of them in the Carpathians,[11] with the Southern Carpathians constituting Europe's largest unfragmented forest area.[12] Rates of forest loss due to clearcutting, and deforestation due to illegal logging in the Carpathians are high.[13]

Name

Script error: No such module "labelled list hatnote". In modern times, the range is called Script error: No such module "Lang". in Czech, Polish and Slovak and Script error: No such module "Lang". Script error: No such module "IPA". in Ukrainian, Script error: No such module "Lang". / Script error: No such module "Lang". in Serbo-Croatian, Script error: No such module "Lang". Script error: No such module "IPA". in Romanian, Script error: No such module "Lang". in Rusyn, Script error: No such module "Lang". Script error: No such module "IPA". in German and Script error: No such module "Lang". Script error: No such module "IPA". in Hungarian.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Although the toponym was recorded by Ptolemy in the second century AD,Template:Sfn the modern form of the name is a neologism in most languages.Template:Sfn

Historical names

In late Roman documents, the Eastern Carpathian Mountains were referred to as Montes Sarmatici (meaning Sarmatian Mountains).[14] The Western Carpathians were called Carpates, a name that is first recorded in Ptolemy's Geographia (second century AD).[15]

In the Scandinavian Hervarar saga, which relates ancient Germanic legends about battles between Goths and Huns, the name Karpates appears in the predictable Germanic form as Harvaða fjöllum (see Grimm's law). "Inter Alpes Huniae et Oceanum est Polonia" ("Between the Hunic Alps and the ocean lies Poland") by Gervase of Tilbury, was described in his Otia Imperialia ("Recreation for an Emperor") in 1211.[16] Thirteenth- to fifteenth-century Hungarian documents named the mountains Thorchal, Tarczal, or less frequently Montes Nivium ("Snowy Mountains").[16]

Havasok ("Snowy Mountains") was its medieval Hungarian name. Rus' chronicles referred to it as "Hungarian Mountains".Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Later sources, such as Dimitrie Cantemir and the Italian chronicler Giovanandrea Gromo, referred to the range as "Transylvania's Mountains", while the 17th-century historian Constantin Cantacuzino translated the name of the mountains in an Italian-Romanian glossary to "Rumanian Mountains".Template:Sfn

Etymology

The etymology of the Carpathians is not clearly established, but the name "Carpates" is highly associated with the old Dacian tribes called "Carpes" or "Carpi" who lived in an area to the east of the Carpathians, from the east, northeast of the Black Sea to the Transylvanian Plain in the present day Romania and Moldova.

Potential root words

File:2 Східні гуцули.jpg
Hutsul people, living in the Carpathian mountains, Template:Circa

Karpates is considered a Paleo-Balkan name, with evidence provided by the Albanian kárpë / kárpa, pl. kárpa / kárpat ('rock, stiff'), and the Messapic karpa 'tuff (rock), limestone' (preserved as càrpë 'tuff' in Bitonto dialect and càrparu 'limestone' in Salentino).[17][18][19][20][21]Template:Sfn This connection is further supported by the fact that also the oronym Beskydy, a series of mountain ranges in the Carpathians, has a meaning in Albanian: bjeshkë / bjeshkët 'high mountains, mountain pastures' (cf. also the Albanian oronym Bjeshkët e Namuna, the Accursed Mountains / Albanian Alps).[20][21]

The name Carpates may ultimately be from the Proto Indo-European root *sker-/*ker-, which meant mountain, rock, or rugged (cf. Albanian kárpë, Germanic root *skerp-, Old Norse Script error: No such module "Lang". "harrow", Gothic skarpo, Middle Low German scharf "potsherd", and Modern High German Scherbe "shard", Lithuanian kar~pas "cut, hack, notch", Latvian cìrpt "to shear, clip").[22] The archaic Polish word karpa meant 'rugged irregularities, underwater obstacles/rocks, rugged roots, or trunks'. The more common word skarpa means a sharp cliff or other vertical terrain, cf. Old English Script error: No such module "Lang". and English sharp.

The name may instead come from Indo-European *Template:Transliteration 'to turn', akin to Old English Script error: No such module "Lang". 'to turn, change' (English warp) and Greek Script error: No such module "Lang". Template:Transliteration 'wrist' (Karpathos island has the same root word), perhaps referring to the way the Carpathian mountain range bends or veers in an L-shape.[22]

Geography

File:Geographic map of Carpathian mountains.svg
Topographic map of the Carpathian Mountains, showing their distribution from the far eastern Czech Republic (3%) and Austria (1%) through Slovakia (21%), Poland (10%), Ukraine (10%), Romania (50%) to Serbia (5%).[2][3][23][4]

Although commonly referred to as a mountain chain, the Carpathians do not form an uninterrupted chain of mountains, but consist of several orographically and geologically distinctive groups. The northwestern Carpathians begin in Slovakia and southern Poland. They surround Transcarpathia and Transylvania in a large semicircle, sweeping towards the southeast, and end on the Danube near Orșova in Romania. The total length of the Carpathians is over Template:Convert.

File:Tatry widok z Tarasowek.jpg
View of Tatry from Bukowina Tatrzańska, Poland

The mountain chain's width varies between Template:Convert. The highest altitudes of the Carpathians occur where they are widest, in the Transylvanian plateau and in the southern Tatra Mountains group. The highest range, in which Gerlachovský štít in Slovakia is the highest peak, is Template:Convert above sea level.

The Carpathians cover an area of Template:Convert. After the Alps, they form the next-most extensive mountain system in Europe. Percentage of the range by country is: Czech Republic (3%) and Austria (1%) in the northwest through Slovakia (21%), Poland (10%), Ukraine (10%), Romania (50%) to Serbia (5%) in the south.

It was believed that no area of the Carpathian range was covered in snow all year round and there were no glaciers, but recent research by Polish scientists discovered one permafrost and glacial area in the Tatra Mountains.[24]

Comparison with the Alps

File:Lacul Bucura, Lacul Ana a Lacul Bucurelu.jpg
Lake Bucura, Southern Carpathians, Romania

The Carpathians, which attain an altitude over Template:Convert in only a few places, lack the bold peaks, extensive snowfields, large glaciers, high waterfalls, and numerous large lakes that are common in the Alps. The Carpathians at their highest altitude are only as high as the middle region of the Alps, with which they share a common appearance, climate, and flora.

The Carpathians are separated from the Alps by the Danube, only meeting at the Leitha Mountains at Bratislava. The river also separates the Carpathians from the Balkan Mountains at Orșova in Romania. The valley of the March and Oder separates the Carpathians from the Silesian and Moravian chains, which belong to the middle wing of the great Central Mountain System of Europe.

File:Branyiszkó 0205 B.JPG
View of Spiš Castle in Slovakia, from the Branisko Pass

Unlike the other wings of the system, the Carpathians, which form the watershed between the northern seas and the Black Sea, are surrounded on all sides by plains. The Pannonian plain is to the southwest, the Lower Danubian Plain to the south, with the southern part being in Bulgaria, and the northern – in (Romania), and the Galician plain to the northeast.

Mountain passes

In the Romanian part of the main chain of the Carpathians, mountain passes include Prislop Pass, Tihuța Pass, Bicaz Canyon, Ghimeș Pass, Buzău Pass, Predeal Pass (crossed by the railway from Brașov to Bucharest), Turnu Roșu Pass (1,115 ft., running through the narrow gorge of the Olt River and crossed by the railway from Sibiu to Bucharest), Vulcan Pass, and the Iron Gate (both crossed by the railway from Timișoara to Craiova).

Geology

File:Békás-szoros.jpg
Bicaz Canyon

The area now occupied by the Carpathians was once occupied by smaller ocean basins. The Carpathian mountains were formed during the Alpine orogeny in the Mesozoic[25] and Cenozoic by moving the ALCAPA (Alpine-Carpathian-Pannonian), Tisza and Dacia plates over subducting oceanic crust.[26]

The mountains take the form of a fold and thrust belt with generally north vergence in the western segment, northeast to east vergence in the eastern portion and southeast vergence in the southern portion. Currently, the area is the most seismically active in Central Europe.[27]

The external, generally northern, portion of the orogenic belt is a Tertiary accretionary wedge of a so-called Flysch belt (the Carpathian Flysch Belt) created by rocks scraped off the sea bottom and thrust over the North-European plate. The Carpathian accretionary wedge is made of several thin skinned nappes composed of Cretaceous to Paleogene turbidites. Thrusting of the Flysch nappes over the Carpathian foreland caused the formation of the Carpathian foreland basin.[28] The boundary between the Flysch belt and internal zones of the orogenic belt in the western segment of the mountain range is marked by the Pieniny Klippen Belt, a narrow complicated zone of polyphase compressional deformation, later involved in a supposed strike-slip zone.[29]

File:Bucegi jepiimici.JPG
Bucegi Mountains in Romania

Internal zones in western and eastern segments contain older Variscan igneous massifs reworked in Mesozoic thick and thin-skinned nappes. During the Middle Miocene this zone was affected by intensive calc-alkaline[30] arc volcanism that developed over the subduction zone of the flysch basins. At the same time, the internal zones of the orogenic belt were affected by large extensional structure[31] of the back-arc Pannonian Basin.[32] The last volcanic activity occurred at Ciomadul about 30,000 years ago.[30]

The mountains started to gain their current shape from the latest Miocene onward.[33] At some locations solifluction deposits have formed on the slopes of the Carpathians.[33] Iron, gold and silver were found in great quantitiesTemplate:Vague in the Western Carpathians. After the Roman emperor Trajan's conquest of Dacia, he brought back to Rome over 165 tons of gold and 330 tons of silver.[34]

Ecology

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File:Polonina Krasna, kůň.jpg
A horse atop the Krasna mountain range in Ukraine's Zakarpattia Oblast

The ecology of the Carpathians varies with altitude, ranging from lowland forests to alpine meadows. Foothill forests are primarily of broadleaf deciduous trees, including oak, hornbeam, and linden. European beech is characteristic of the montane forest zone. Higher-elevation subalpine forests are characterized by Norway spruce (Picea abies). Krummholz and alpine meadows occur above the treeline.[35]

Wildlife in the Carpathians includes Eurasian brown bear (Ursus arctos arctos), Eurasian wolf (Canis lupus lupus), Eurasian lynx (Lynx lynx), European wildcat (Felis silvestris), Tatra chamois (Rupicapra rupicapra tatrica), European bison (Bison bonasus), and golden eagle (Aquila chrysaetos).[35]

Divisions of the Carpathians

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File:Mapcarpat2.png
A map of the main divisions of the Carpathians. Template:Olist

In geopolitical terms, Carpathian Mountains are often grouped and labeled according to national or regional borders, but such division has turned out to be relative, since it was, and still is dependent on frequent historical, political and administrative changes of national or regional borders. According to modern geopolitical division, Carpathians can be grouped as: Serbian, Romanian, Ukrainian, Polish, Slovakian, Czech and Austrian. Within each nation, specific classifications of the Carpathians have been developing, often reflecting local traditions, and thus creating terminological diversity, that produces various challenges in the fields of comparative classification and international systematization.

File:Koniaków miyszani owiec (redyk wiosenny) 06.jpg
Shepherds in Beskids

A major part of the western and northeastern Outer Eastern Carpathians in Poland, Ukraine, and Slovakia is traditionally called the Eastern Beskids.The border between the eastern and southern Carpathians is formed by the Predeal Pass, south of Brașov and the Prahova Valley.

The geological border between the Western and Eastern Carpathians runs approximately along the line (south to north) between the towns of Michalovce, Bardejov, Nowy Sącz and Tarnów. In older systems the border runs more in the east, along the line (north to south) along the rivers San and Osława (Poland), the town of Snina (Slovakia) and river Tur'ia (Ukraine). Biologists shift the border even further to the east.

File:Rzekabiałka.jpg
Tatra Mountains in southern Poland

The section of the Carpathians within the borders of Romania is commonly known as the Romanian Carpathians. In local use, Romanians sometimes denote as "Eastern Carpathians" only the Romanian part of the Eastern Carpathians, which lies on their territory (i.e., from the Ukrainian border or from the Prislop Pass to the south), which they subdivide into three simplified geographical groups (northern, central, southern), instead of Outer and Inner Eastern Carpathians. These groups are:

  • Maramureș-Bukovinian Carpathians (Romanian: Carpații Maramureșului și ai Bucovinei)
  • Moldavian-Transylvanian Carpathians (Romanian: Carpații Moldo-Transilvani)
  • Curvature Carpathians (Romanian: Carpații Curburii, Carpații de Curbură)

The section of the Carpathians within the borders of Ukraine is commonly known as the Ukrainian Carpathians. Classification of eastern sections of the Carpathians is particularly complex, since it was influenced by several overlapping traditions. Terms like Wooded Carpathians, Poloniny Mountains or Eastern Beskids are often used in varying scopes by authors belonging to different traditions.

Highest peaks

This is an (incomplete) list of the peaks of the Carpathians having summits over Template:Convert, with their heights, geologic divisions, and locations.

Peak Geologic divisions Nation (Nations) County (Counties) Height (m) Height (ft)
Gerlachovský štít High Tatras Slovakia Prešov Region Template:Convert
Gerlachovská veža Template:Convert
Lomnický štít Template:Convert
Ľadový štít Template:Convert
Pyšný štít Template:Convert
Zadný Gerlach Template:Convert
Lavínový štít Template:Convert
Malý Ľadový štít Template:Convert
Kotlový štít Template:Convert
Lavínová veža Template:Convert
Malý Pyšný štít Template:Convert
Veľká Litvorová veža Template:Convert
Strapatá veža Template:Convert
Kežmarský štít Template:Convert
Vysoká Template:Convert
Moldoveanu Făgăraș Mountains Romania Argeș Template:Convert
Negoiu Sibiu Template:Convert
Viștea Mare Brașov Template:Convert
Parângu Mare Parâng Mountains Alba, Gorj, Hunedoara Template:Convert
Lespezi Făgăraș Mountains Sibiu Template:Convert
Peleaga Retezat Mountains Hunedoara Template:Convert
Păpușa Template:Convert
Vânătoarea lui Buteanu Făgăraș Mountains Argeș Template:Convert
Omu (mountain) Bucegi Mountains Prahova, Brașov, Dâmbovița Template:Convert
Cornul Călțunului Făgăraș Mountains Sibiu Template:Convert
Ocolit (Bucura) Bucegi Mountains Prahova, Brașov, Dâmbovița Template:Convert
Rysy High Tatras Poland, Slovakia Lesser Poland Voivodeship, Prešov Region Template:Convert
Dara Făgăraș Mountains Romania Sibiu Template:Convert

Highest peaks by country

This is a list of the highest national peaks of the Carpathians, their heights, geologic divisions, and locations.

Peak Geologic divisions Nation (Nations) County (Counties) Height (m) Height (ft)
Gerlachovský štít High Tatras Slovakia Prešov Region Template:Convert
Moldoveanu Făgăraș Mountains Romania Argeș Template:Convert
Rysy High Tatras Poland Tatra County Template:Convert
Hoverla Eastern Beskids (Chornohora) Ukraine Nadvirna Raion, Rakhiv Raion Template:Convert
Rtanj Serbian Carpathians Serbia Zaječar District Template:Convert
Lysá hora Moravian-Silesian Beskids Czech Republic Moravian-Silesian Region Template:Convert
Kékes Mátra-Slanec Area (Mátra) Hungary Heves County Template:Convert
Hundsheimer Berg Hundsheimer Berge Austria Niederösterreich Template:Convert

Cities and towns

Important cities and towns in or near the Carpathians are, in approximate descending order of population:

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See also

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References

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Sources

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Further reading

  • Tóth, Kata. "Invisible Mountains? The Eastern and Southern Carpathians and their Environmental History (Fourteenth–Seventeenth Centuries)". Environment and History (August 2025), 31#3: 327–349. online

External links

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Template:Carpathian Mountains Template:Portal bar Template:Authority control

  1. ↑ About the Carpathians – Carpathian Heritage Society Template:Webarchive
  2. ↑ a b [1] Template:Webarchive "The Carpathians" European Travel Commission, in The Official Travel Portal of Europe, Retrieved 15 November 2016
  3. ↑ a b [2] Template:Webarchive The Carpathian Project: Carpathian Mountains in Serbia, Institute for Spatial Planning, Faculty of Geography, University of Belgrade (2008), Retrieved: 15 November 2016
  4. ↑ a b Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  5. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  6. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  7. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  8. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  9. ↑ București, stațiune balneară – o glumă bună? Template:Webarchive in Capital, 19 January 2009. Retrieved: 26 April 2011
  10. ↑ Ruinele de la Baile Herculane si Borsec nu mai au nimic de oferit Template:Webarchive in Ziarul Financiar, 5 May 2010. Retrieved: 26 April 2011
  11. ↑ Salvați pădurile virgine! Template:Webarchive in Jurnalul Național, 26 October 2011. Retrieved: 31 October 2011
  12. ↑ Europe: New Move to Protect Virgin Forests in Global Issues, 30 May 2011. Retrieved 31 October 2011.
  13. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  14. ↑ E.g. in work Tractatus de duabus Sarmatiis, Asiana et Europiana, et de contentis in eis by Mathias de Miechow, first edition from 1517. Second book, chapter 1.
  15. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  16. ↑ a b Template:Cite DNB
  17. ↑ Script error: No such module "Citation/CS1". p. 96
  18. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  19. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  20. ↑ a b Çabej, Eqrem. (1972). Studime Filologjike. universiteti shtetëror i Tiranës.
  21. ↑ a b Script error: No such module "citation/CS1". p. 67.
  22. ↑ a b Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  23. ↑ [3] Template:Webarchive Bulletin of the Natural History Museum, pg. 54, Valuing the geological heritage of Serbia (UDC: 502.171:55(497.11), Aleksandra Maran (2010), Retrieved 15 November 2016
  24. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  25. ↑ Script error: No such module "Citation/CS1".
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  27. ↑ Script error: No such module "Citation/CS1".
  28. ↑ Script error: No such module "Citation/CS1".
  29. ↑ Script error: No such module "Citation/CS1".
  30. ↑ a b Script error: No such module "Citation/CS1".
  31. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  32. ↑ Script error: No such module "Citation/CS1".
  33. ↑ a b Script error: No such module "Citation/CS1".
  34. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  35. ↑ a b Template:WWF ecoregion
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