Carpathian Mountains

 

(kärpā'thēənz) or Carpathian Mountains, Czech, Pol., and Ukr. Karpaty, Rom. Carpaţii, major mountain system of central and E Europe, extending c.930 mi (1,500 km) along the north and east sides of the Danubian plain. The geologically young mountains, which are part of the main European chain, link the Alps with the Balkans. The Carpathians begin in SW Slovakia and extend northeasterly along the Czech–Slovak border to Poland. There the Northern Carpathians, comprising the Beskids and the Tatra, run east along the Polish border, then SE through W Ukraine; in Romania they are continued by the Transylvanian Alps (or Southern Carpathians), which extend SW to the Danube River. The highest peaks are Gerlachovskÿ (8,737 ft/2,663 m) in the Tatra and Moldoveanu in the Transylvanian Alps. The Carpathians are rich in minerals and timber. The region's cold winters and hot summers make it a year-round resort. Although the Carpathians are a barrier to the southward movement of cold air masses, numerous low passes facilitate overland travel between the densely populated areas that flank the system. The Carpathians themselves are sparsely populated, with the greatest number of people found in the larger agricultural valleys to the south.

The Carpathian Mountains (Romanian: Munţii Carpaţi; Polish, Czech, and Slovak: Karpaty; Ukrainian: Карпати (Karpaty); German: Karpaten; Serbian: Karpati / Карпати; Hungarian: Kárpátok) are the eastern wing of the great Central Mountain System of Europe, curving 1500 km (~900 miles) along the borders of Romania, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Ukraine, Austria, Serbia, and northern Hungary.

Name

The name 'Karpetes' may ultimately be from the Proto Indo-European root *sker-/*ker-, from which comes the Albanian word karpë "rock", perhaps by Dacian cognate which meant 'mountain,' rock, or rugged (cf. Old Norse harfr "harrow", Middle Low German shcarf "potsherd", Lithuanian kar~pas "cut, hack, notch", Latvian cìrpt "to shear, clip"). Archaic Polish word karpa meant "rugged irregularities, underwater obstacles/rocks, rugged roots or trunks". The more common word skarpa is sharp cliff or other vertical terrain. Otherwise, the name may instead come from IE *kwerp "to turn", akin to Old English hweorfan "to turn, change" and Greek karpós "wrist", perhaps referring to the way the mountain range bends or veers in an L-shape^[1].

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. Around 310 AD the Carpathians are mentioned as Montes Serrorum by the Flavius Galerius Valerius Licinianus Licinius.

The name of the Carpi, a Dacian tribe may have been derived from the name of the Carpathian Mountains. Name recorded in late Roman Empire documents (Zosimus) as living until 381 on the Eastern Carpathian slopes. Alternatively the mountain range's name may be derived from the Dacian tribe.

In Hungarian XIII- i XIV century Hungarian documents named the mountains Thorchal, Tarczal or less frequently Montes Nivium.

In the Scandinavian 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).

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 near the Polish border). 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 in only 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.

Geology

The Carpathian Mountains were formed during the Alpine orogeny.

Divisions

Main article: Divisions of the Carpathians

Horizontal division

• Outer Carpathians, containing the Outer Western Carpathians and Outer Eastern Carpathians, usually including the corresponding Outer Carpathian Depressions
• Inner Carpathians, containing the Inner Western Carpathians, Inner Eastern Carpathians, and all the remaining Carpathians

A major part of the western and northeastern Outer Carpathians in Poland, Ukraine and Slovakia is traditionally called Beskids.

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

• • 2 Inner Western Carpathians:
    • Slovenské rudohorie (Slovak Ore Mountains)
    • Fatra-Tatra Area
    • Slovenské stredohorie
    • Lučensko-košická zníženina
    • Mátra-Slanec Area/Northern Medium Mountains
• 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

Fictional depictions

The Carpathian Mountains have been depicted as the setting of several fictional works.

• The Carpathians (race) in Christine Feehan's Dark Series call the Carpathian Mountains their homeland.
• Jules Verne wrote the novel The Castle of the Carpathians, which takes place in the region.
• The eponymous character in Bram Stoker's novel Dracula had his castle in the Carpathian mountains.

See also

• List of mountain peaks in Romania

References

External links

• Ukrainian Carpathian Mountains photos
• http://www.carpati.org/
• http://www.alpinet.org/
• Orographic map highlighting Carpathian mountains
• Hiking trails in Ukrainian Carpathian Mountains
• Carpathian Mountains Images
• Ukrainian Carpathian Mountains panoramic photos

Coordinates: 47°00′N, 25°30′E

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