Carpathian Mountains

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This article is about a terrestrial mountain range. For a lunar range, see Montes Carpatus

Satellite image of the Carpathians.

The Southern Carpathians in Romania.

The Transylvanian Western Carpathians (Apuseni Mountains).

The Romanian Eastern Carpathians.

Inner Western Carpathians, Tatra, Poland.

The Carpathian Mountains are the eastern wing of the great Central Mountain System of Europe, curving 1500 km (~900 miles) along the borders of Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Ukraine, Romania, Serbia, and northern Hungary.

The names for the Carpathians in central European languages are: Polish, Czech, and Slovak: Karpaty; Romanian: Carpaţi; Ukrainian: Карпати (Karpaty); German: Karpaten; Serbian: Karpati; Hungarian: Kárpátok.

1 Name
2 Geography
3 Geology
4 Divisions
- 4.1 Horizontal division
- 4.2 Vertical and general division
5 Convention on the protection of the Carpathians
6 See also
7 External links

[edit] Name

The mountain range's name is most likely derived from the Carp, a Dacian tribe, recorded in late Roman Empire documents (Zosimus) as living until 381 on the Eastern Carpathian slopes. Alternately, the name of the tribe may have been derived from the name of the mountains. The name 'Karpetes' may ultimately be from the Proto Indo-European root *sker-/*ker-, from which comes the Albanian word 'karpë' (rock), perhaps by way of a Dacian word which meant 'mountain,' 'rock,' or 'rugged.'

In late Roman documents, the Eastern Carpathian Mountains were referred to as Montes Sarmatici. The Western Carpathians were called Carpates. The name Carpates is first recorded in Ptolemy's Geography.

In the Scandinavian 'sam' Hervarar saga, which describes 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).

In official Hungarian documents of the 13th and 14th centuries, the Carpathians are named Thorchal or Tarczal, or the latinate Montes Nivium.

[edit] Geography

The Carpathians begin on the Danube near Bratislava. They surround Transcarpathia and Transylvania in a large semicircle, sweeping towards the south-west, and end on the Danube near Orşova, in Romania. The total length of the Carpathians is over 1,500 km, and the mountain chain's width varies between 12 and 500 km. The greatest width of the Carpathians corresponds with its highest altitudes. The system attains its greatest breadth in the Transylvanian plateau and in the meridian of the Tatra group (the highest range, with Gerlachovský štít, at 2,655 m (8,705 feet) above sea level in Slovak territory). It covers an area of 190,000 km², and, after the Alps, is the most extensive mountain system in Europe.

Although commonly referred to as a mountain chain, the Carpathians do not actually form an uninterrupted chain of mountains. Rather, they consist of several orographically and geologically distinctive groups, presenting as great a structural variety as the Alps. The Carpathians, which only in a few places attain an altitude of over 2,500 m, lack the bold peaks, extensive snow-fields, large glaciers, high waterfalls, and numerous large lakes that are common in the Alps. No area of the Carpathian range is covered in snow year-round, and there are no glaciers. 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. The two ranges meet only at one point: the Leitha Mountains at Bratislava. The river also separates them from the Stara Planina, or "Balkan Mountains," at Orşova, 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. 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, namely the Pannonian plain on the southwest, the plain of the Lower Danube (Romania) on the south, and the Galician plain on the northeast.

[edit] Geology

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[edit] Divisions

Main article: Divisions of the Carpathians

[edit] Horizontal division

Outer Carpathians (= Outer Western Carpathians and Outer Eastern Carpathians, usually incl. the corresponding Outer Carpathian Depressions)
Inner Carpathians (= Inner Western Carpathians, Inner Eastern Carpathians, and all the remaining Carpathians)

A major part of the western and northeastern Outer Carpathians is traditionally called Beskids.

[edit] Vertical and general division

What follows is a practical outline of the Carpathian subdivisions (clockwise from the west, numbers refer to the map):

Western Carpathians:
- 1 Outer Western Carpathians:
  - Austrian - South-Moravian Carpathians
  - Central Moravian Carpathians
  - Slovak-Moravian Carpathians
  - West-Beskidian Piedmont
  - Western Beskids
  - Central Beskids
  - Eastern Beskids
  - Podhale-Magura Area

Map of the Carpathian subdivisions.

- 2 Inner Western Carpathians:
  - Slovak Ore Mountains
  - Fatra-Tatra Area
  - Slovak Medium Mountains
  - Lučenec-Košice Depression
  - Mátra-Slanec Area
South Eastern Carpathians (= Eastern Carpathians in a wider sense):
- Eastern Carpathians:
  - 3 Outer Eastern Carpathians:
    - Central Beskidian Piedmont
    - Low Beskids
    - Eastern Beskids
    - Moldavian-Muntenian Carpathians
    - Eastern Subcarpathians
  - 4 Inner Eastern Carpathians:
    - Vihorlat-Gutin Area
    - Bistriţa Mountains
    - Căliman-Harghita Mountains
    - Giurgeu-Braşov Depression
    - Rakhiv Massif and Maramureş Mountains
    - Maramureş Depression
    - Rodna Mountains
- 5 Southern Carpathians (also known as Transylvanian Alps):
  - Făgăraş Mountains Group
  - Parâng Mountains Group
  - Retezat-Godeanu Mountains Group
- 6 Romanian Western Carpathians:
  - Apuseni Mountains
  - Poiana Ruscă Mountains (sometimes considered part of the Southern Carpathians)
  - Banat Mountains (sometimes considered part of the Southern Carpathians)
- 7 Transylvanian Plateau (sometimes not considered part of the Carpathians at all):
  - Transylvanian Plateau
  - Mureş-Turda Depression
  - Făgăraş Depression
  - Sibiu Depression
- 8 Serbian Carpathians (sometimes considered part of the Southern Carpathians, or not considered part of the Carpathians at all)
Outer Carpathian Depressions (they surround the Carpathians and are normally considered part of the corresponding adjacent above main groups)

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

The border between the Eastern and Southern Carpathians is formed by the Predeal Pass, south of Braşov and the Prahova Valley.

The Ukrainians sometimes denote as "Eastern Carpathians" only the Ukrainian Carpathians (or Wooded Carpathians), i.e., basically the part situated largely on their territory (i.e., to the north of the Prislop Pass), while the Romanians sometimes denote as "Eastern Carpathians" only the other part, which lies on their territory (i.e., from the Ukrainian border or from the Prislop Pass to the south).

Also, the Romanians divide the Eastern Carpathians on their territory into three simplified geographical groups (north, center, south), instead of Outer and Inner Eastern Carpathians. These are:

Carpaţii Maramureşului şi ai Bucovinei (Carpathians of Maramureş and Bucovina)
Carpaţii Moldo-Transilvani (Moldavian-Transylvanian Carpathians)
Carpaţii de Curbură/Carpaţii Curburii

[edit] Convention on the protection of the Carpathians

A Framework Convention on the Protection and Sustainable Development of the Carpathians [1] was signed in 2003 between the seven participating states, following an international consultation process facilitated by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP).