There is no consensus about which mountains he meant, and he could for example have intended theOre Mountains, joining the modern Sudetes to their west, or even (according to Schütte) theBohemian Forest (although this is normally considered to be equivalent to Ptolemy's Gabreta forest).[3] The modern Sudetes are probably Ptolemy's Askiburgion mountains.[4]
Ptolemy wrote "Σούδητα" inGreek, which is a neuter plural. Latinmons, however, is a masculine, hence Sudeti. The Latin version, and the modern geographical identification, is likely to be a scholastic innovation, as it is not attested in classical Latin literature. The meaning of the name is not known. In one hypothetical derivation, it meansMountains ofWild Boars, relying onIndo-European *su-, "pig". A better etymology perhaps is from Latinsudis, pluralsudes, "spines", which can be used of spiny fish or spiny terrain.
The highest mountains, those located along the Czech–Polish border have annualprecipitations around 1,500 millimetres (59 in).[5] TheTable Mountains, which reach 919 metres (3,015 ft) in elevation, have precipitations ranging from 750 millimetres (30 in) at lower locations to 920 millimetres (36 in) in the upper parts, with July being the rainiest month. Snow cover at the Table Mountains typically last 70 to 95 days depending on altitude.[6]
Settlement, logging and clearance has left forest pockets in the foothills with dense and continuous forest being found in the upper parts of the mountains.[2] Due to logging in the last centuries little remains of thebroad-leaf trees likebeech,sycamore,ash andlittleleaf linden that were once common in the Sudetes. InsteadNorway spruce was planted in their place in the early 19th century, in some places amounting tomonocultures.[2] To provide more space for spruce plantations variouspeatlands were drained in the 19th and 20th century.[6] Some spruce plantations have suffered severe damage as the seeds used came from lowland specimens that were not adapted to mountain conditions.[2]Silver fir grow naturally in the Sudetes being more widespread in past times, before clearance since theLate Middle Ages and subsequent industrial pollution reduced the stands.[7]
The higher mountains of the Sudetes lie above thetimber line which is made up of Norway spruce.[5][9] Spruces in wind-exposed areas display features such asflag tree disposition of branches, tilted stems and elongated stem cross sections.[10] Forest-free areas above the timber line have increased historically bydeforestation[8] yet lowering of the timber line by human activity is minimal.[9] Areas above the timber line appear discontinuously as "islands" in the Sudetes.[5] In theGiant Mountains the timber line lies atc. 1230 m a.s.l. while to the southeast in theHrubý Jeseník mountains it lie atc. 1310 m a.s.l.[5] Part of the Hrubý Jeseník mountains have been above the timber line for no less than 5000 years.[5] Mountains rise considerably above the timber line, at most 400 m, a characteristic that sets the Sudetes apart from otherMittelgebirge ofCentral Europe.[1]
Theigneous andmetamorphic rocks of the Sudetes originated during theVariscan orogeny and its aftermath.[12] The Sudetes are the northeasternmost accessible part of Variscan orogen as in theNorth European Plain the orogen is buried beneath sediments.[13]Plate tectonic movements during the Variscan orogeny assembled together four major and two to three lessertectonostratigraphic terranes.[14][C] The assemblage of the terranes ought to have involved theclosure of at least twoocean basins containingoceanic crust and marine sediments.[15] This is reflected in theophiolites,MORB-basalts,blueschists andeclogites that occur in-between terranes.[14] Various terranes of the Sudetes are likely extensions of theArmorican terrane while other terranes may be the fringes of the ancientBaltica continent.[13] One possibility for the amalgamation of terranes in the Sudetes is that the Góry Sowie-Kłodzko terrane collided with the Orlica-Śnieżnik terrane causing the closure of a small oceanic basin. This event led toobduction of theCentral Sudetic ophiolite in the Devonian period. In the Early Carboniferous the joint Góry Sowie-Kłodzko-Orlica-Śnieżnik terrane collided with the Brunovistulian terrane. This last terrane was part of theOld Red Continent and could correspond either toBaltica or the eastern tip of the narrow Avalonia terrane. Also by the Early Carboniferous the Saxothuringian terrane collided with the Góry Sowie-Kłodzko-Orlica-Śnieżnik terrane closing theRheic Ocean.[16]
A NW-SE to WNW-ESE orientedstrike-slip fault —the Intra-Sudetic fault— runs through the length of the Sudetes.[15] The Intra-Sudetic fault is parallel with theUpper Elbe fault andMiddle Oder fault.[13] Other main faults at the sudetes are also NW-SE oriented,dextral and of strike slip type. These include the Tłumaczów-Sienna Fault and the Marginal Sudetic Fault.[19]
Ostrzyca, an eroded volcano in the northern Sudetes
There are remnants oflava flows andvolcanic plugs in the Sudetes.[20] Thevolcanic rocks making up theseoutcrops are ofmafic chemistry and includebasanite and represent episodes of volcanism in theOligocene andMiocene periods.[20][E] Volcanism affected not only the Sudetes but also parts of theSudetic foreland being part of a SW-NE oriented Bohemo-Silesian Belt of volcanic rocks.[20]Mantlexenoliths have been recovered from the lavas of a volcano atJeštěd-Kozákov Ridge in the Czech western Sudetes.[21] Thesepyroxenite xenoliths arrived to surface from approximate depths of 35, 70 and 73 km and indicate a complex history for the mantle beneath the Sudetes.[21]
There arethermal springs in the Sudetes with measured temperatures of 29 to 44 °C. Drilling has revealed the existence of waters at 87 °C at depths of 2000 m. These modern waters are believed to be associated to theLate Cenozoic volcanism in Central Europe.[22]
The Sudetes forms the NE border of theBohemian Massif.[13] In detail the Sudetes is made up of a series of massifs that are rectangular and rhomboid in plan view.[23] These mountains corresponds tohorsts anddomes separated by basins, includinggrabens.[24] The mountains took their present form after the Late Mesozoicretreat of the seas from the area which left the Sudetes subject to denudation for at least 65 million years.[23] This meant that during theLate Cretaceous andEarly Cenozoic 8 to 4 km of rock was eroded from the top of what is now the Sudetes.[25] Concurrently with the Cenozoic denudation the climate cooled due to thenorthward drift of Europe. Thecollision between Africa and Europe has resulted in the deformation and uplift of the Sudetes.[23] As such the uplift is related to the contemporaryrise of the Alps andCarpathians.[23][11][F] The acceleration of uplift of the Sudetes occurred during the Middle Miocene because of the Bohemian Massif's growth.[26] Uplift was accomplished by the creation or reactivation of numerousfaults leading to a reshaping of the relief byrenewed erosion.[12] Various "hanging valleys" attest to this uplift.[11]Block tectonics has uplifted or sunkencrustal blocks. While the Late Cenozoic uplift has uplifted the Sudetes as a whole somegrabens precede this uplift.[19]
Weathering during the Cenozoic led to the formation of anetchplain in parts of Sudetes. While this etchplain has been eroded various landforms and weathering mantles have been suggested to attest its former existence.[12] At present the mountain range shows a remarkablediversity of landforms.[23] Some of the landforms present areescarpments,inselbergs,bornhardts,granitic domes,tors,flared slopes andweathering pits.[12] Various escarpments have originated fromfaults and may reach heights of up to 500 m.[11] To the northeast the Sudetes is separated from the Sudetic foreland by a sharpmountain front made up of an escarpment linked to the Sudetic Marginal Fault.[27] NearKaczawa this escarpment reaches 80 to 120 m in height. The relative influence ofPliocene-Quaternarytectonic movements and erosion in shaping the mountain landscape may vary along the northern front of the Sudetes.[27]
The area around the Sudetes had by the 12th century been relatively densely settled[2] with agriculture and settlements expanding further in theHigh Middle Ages from the 13th century onward.[6] The majority of settlers were Germans from neighbouring Silesia, founding typicalWaldhufendörfer.[28] As this trend went onthinning of forest and deforestation had turned clearlyunsustainable by the 14th century.[7] In the 15th and 16th centuries agriculture had reached the inner part ofTable Mountains in theCentral Sudetes.[2] Destruction and degradation of the Sudetes forest peaked in the 16th and 17th centuries[7] with demand of firewood coming fromglasshouses that operated through the area in theearly modern period.[2]
Some limited form offorest management begun in the 18th century[7] while in theindustrial age demand for firewood was sustained by metallurgic industries in the settlements and cities around the mountains.[2] In the 19th century theCentral Sudetes had an economic boom with sandstone quarrying and a flourishing tourism industry centered on the natural scenery. Despite this there was at least since the 1880s a trend of depopulation of villages and hamlets which continued into the 20th century.[29] SinceWorld War II various areas that were cleared of forest have been re-naturalized.[29] Industrial activity across Europe has caused considerable damage to the forests asacid rain andheavy metals has arrived with westerly and southwesterly winds.[2]Silver firs have proven particularly vulnerable to industrialsoil contamination.[7]
The term was used in a wider sense when on 1 October 1933Konrad Henlein founded theSudeten German Party and inNazi German parlanceSudetendeutsche (Sudeten Germans) referred to all autochthonous ethnicGermans in Czechoslovakia. They were heavily clustered in the entire mountainous periphery of Czechoslovakia—not only in the former MoravianProvinz Sudetenland but also along the northwestern Bohemian borderlands with GermanLower Silesia,Saxony andBavaria, in an area formerly calledGerman Bohemia. In total, the German minority population of interwar Czechoslovakia numbered around 20% of the total national population.
AfterWorld War II, most of the previous population of the Sudetes was forciblyexpelled on the basis of thePotsdam Agreement and theBeneš decrees, and the region was resettled by new Polish and Czechoslovak citizens. A considerable proportion of the Czechoslovak populace thereafter strongly objected to the use of the termSudety. In the Czech Republic the designationKrkonošsko-jesenická subprovincie is used in academic context and usually only the discrete Czech names for the individual mountain ranges (e.g. Giant Mountains) appear, as underSubdivisions above.
Winter in theGiant Mountains. Polish refuge – Samotnia (1195 m a.s.l.)
Part of the economy of the Sudetes is dedicated to tourism.Coal mining towns likeWałbrzych have re-oriented their economies towards tourism since the decline of mining in the 1980s.[30] As of 2000 scholar Krzysztof R. Mazurski judged that the Sudetes, much likePoland's Baltic coast and theCarpathians, were unlikely to attract much foreign tourism.[30]Sandstone was quarried in Sudetes during the 19th and 20th centuries.[29] Likewisevolcanic rock has also been quarried[20] to such degree untouched volcanoes are scarce.[31] Sandstone labyrinths have been a notable tourist attraction since the 19th century with considerable investments being done in projecting trails some of which involve rock engineering.[29]
^Geologist Tom McCann lists the main Variscan terranes that make up much of the Sudetes as the Moldanubian, Góry-Sowie-Klodzko, Teplá Barriandian, Lusatia-Izera terrane, Brunovistulian terrane. The first three lie in the central Sudetes while the last two in thewest andcentral Sudetes.[15]
^Contrary to this case S-type granites are typically thought to come into existence concurrently or slightly after orogeny.[17]
^Fission track dating yields various possibilities about the Late Cenozoic uplift of the Sudetes. Possibly the last uplift pulse begun 7 to 5 million years ago.[25]
^abcdefgMigoń, Piort (2008). "High-mountain elements in the geomorphology of the Sudetes, Bohemian Massif, and their significance".Geographia Polonica.81 (1):101–116.
^abcdGlina, Bartłomiej; Malkiewicz, Małgorzata; Mendyk, Łukasz; Bogacz, Adam; Woźniczka, Przemysław (2016). "Human-affected disturbances in vegetation cover and peatland development in the late Holocene recorded in shallow mountain peatlands (Central Sudetes, SW Poland)".Boreas.46 (2):294–307.doi:10.1111/bor.12203.S2CID133200850.
^abcdeBarzdajn, Wladyslaw (2004). "Rehabilitation of silver fir (Abies alba Mill) populations in the Sudetes". Report of the second (20–22 September 2001, Valsaín, Spain) and third (17–19 October 2002, Kostrzyca, Poland) meetings (Report). pp. 45–51.
^abcdKwiatkowski, Paweł; Krahulec, František (2016). "Disjunct Distribution Patterns in Vascular Flora of the Sudetes".Ann. Bot. Fennici.53 (1–2):91–102.doi:10.5735/085.053.0217.S2CID86962680.
^Wistuba, Małgorzata; Papciak, Tomasz; Malik, Ireneusz; Barnaś, Agnieszka; Polowy, Marta; Pilorz, Wojciech (2014). "Wzrost dekoncentryczny świerka pospolitego jako efekt oddziaływania dominującego kierunku wiatru (przykład z Hrubégo Jeseníka, Sudety Wschodnie)" [Eccentric growth of Norway spruce trees as a result of prevailing winds impact (example from Hrubý Jeseník, Eastern Sudetes)].Studia I Materiały CEPL W Rogowie (in Polish).40 (3):63–73.
^abcdeMcCann, Tom (2008). "Sudetes". In McCann, Tom (ed.).The Geology of Central Europe, Volume 1: Pre-Cambrian and Palaeozoic. Vol. 1. London: The Geological Society. p. 496.ISBN978-1-86239-245-8.
^Mazur, Stanisław; Aleksandrowski, Paweł; Turniak, Krzysztof; Awdankiewicz, Marek (2007). "Geology, tectonic evolution and Late Palaeozoic magmatism of Sudetes – an overview".Granitoids in Poland. Vol. 1. pp. 59–87.
^abAwdankiewicz, Marek; Awdankiewicz, Honorata; Kryza, Ryszard; Rodinov, Nickolay (2009). "SHRIMP zircon study of a micromonzodiorite dyke in the Karkonosze Granite, Sudetes (SW Poland): age constraints for late Variscan magmatism in Central Europe".Geological Magazine.147 (1):77–85.doi:10.1017/S001675680999015X.S2CID129844097.
^abcdeBirkenmajer, Krzysztof; Pécskay, Zóltan; Grabowski, Jacek; Lorenc, Marek W.; Zagożdżon, Paweł P. (2002). "Radiometric dating of the Tertiary volcanics in Lower Silesia, Poland. II. K-Ar and palaeomagnetic data from Neogene basanites near Lądek Zdrój, Sudetes Mts".Annales Societatis Geologorum Poloniae.72:119–129.
^abcdeMigoń, Piotr (2011). "Geomorphic Diversity of the Sudetes – Effects of the structure and global change superimposed".Geographia Polonica.2:93–105.
^Migoń, Piotr (1997). "Tertiary etchsurfaces in the Sudetes Mountains, SW Poland: a contribution to the pre-Quaternary morphology of Central Europe". In Widdowson, M. (ed.).Palaeosurfaces: Recognition, Reconstruction and Palaeoenvironmental Interpretation. Geological Society Special Publication. London: The Geological Society.
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