TheCarpathian Mountains orCarpathians (/kɑːrˈpeɪθiənz/) are a range of mountains forming an arc acrossCentral Europe andSoutheast Europe. Roughly 1,500 km (930 mi) long, it is the third-longest European mountain range after theUrals at 2,500 km (1,600 mi) and theScandinavian Mountains at 1,700 km (1,100 mi). The highest peaks in the Carpathians are in theTatra Mountains, exceeding 2,600 m (8,500 ft), closely followed by those in theSouthern Carpathians in Romania, exceeding 2,550 m (8,370 ft).
The Carpathians provide habitat for the largest European populations ofbrown bears,wolves,chamois, andlynxes, with the highest concentration in Romania,[5][6][7] as well as over one-third of all European plant species.[8] The mountains and theirfoothills also have manythermal andmineral waters, with Romania having one-third of the European total.[9][10]
Romania is likewise home to the second-largest area ofvirgin forests in Europe after Russia, totaling 250,000 hectares (65%), most of them in the Carpathians,[11] with theSouthern 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]
In lateRoman documents, the Eastern Carpathian Mountains were referred to asMontes Sarmatici (meaningSarmatian Mountains).[17] The Western Carpathians were calledCarpates, a name that is first recorded inPtolemy'sGeographia (second century AD).[18]
In the ScandinavianHervarar saga, which relates ancient Germanic legends aboutbattles betweenGoths andHuns, the nameKarpates appears in the predictable Germanic form asHarvaða fjöllum (seeGrimm's law). "Inter Alpes Huniae et Oceanum est Polonia" ("Between the Hunic Alps and the ocean lies Poland") byGervase of Tilbury, was described in hisOtia Imperialia ("Recreation for an Emperor") in 1211.[19] Thirteenth- to fifteenth-century Hungarian documents named the mountainsThorchal,Tarczal, or less frequentlyMontes Nivium ("Snowy Mountains").[19]
Havasok ("Snowy Mountains") was its medievalHungarian name. Russian chronicles referred to it as "Hungarian Mountains".[15][14] Later sources, such asDimitrie Cantemir and the Italian chronicler Giovanandrea Gromo, referred to the range as "Transylvania's Mountains", while the 17th-century historianConstantin Cantacuzino translated the name of the mountains in an Italian-Romanian glossary to "Rumanian Mountains".[14]
The etymology of the Carpathians is not clearly established, but the name "Carpates" is highly associated with the oldDacian 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 theTransylvanian Plain in the present day Romania and Moldova.
Hutsul people, living in the Carpathian mountains,circa 1872
Karpates is considered aPaleo-Balkan name, with evidence provided by theAlbaniankárpë / kárpa, pl.kárpa / kárpat ('rock, stiff'), and theMessapickarpa 'tuff (rock),limestone' (preserved ascàrpë 'tuff' inBitonto dialect andcàrparu 'limestone' inSalentino).[20][21][22][23][24][16] This connection is further supported by the fact that also the oronymBeskydy, a series of mountain ranges in the Carpathians, has a meaning in Albanian:bjeshkë / bjeshkët 'high mountains, mountain pastures' (cf. also the Albanian oronymBjeshkët e Namuna, theAccursed Mountains / Albanian Alps).[23][24]
The nameCarpates may ultimately be from theProto Indo-European root*sker-/*ker-, which meant mountain, rock, or rugged (cf. Albaniankárpë, Germanic root*skerp-, Old Norseharfr "harrow", Gothicskarpo, Middle Low Germanscharf "potsherd", and Modern High GermanScherbe "shard", Lithuaniankar~pas "cut, hack, notch", Latviancìrpt "to shear, clip").[25] The archaic Polish wordkarpa meant 'rugged irregularities, underwater obstacles/rocks, rugged roots, or trunks'. The more common wordskarpa means a sharp cliff or other vertical terrain, cf. Old Englishscearp and Englishsharp. The name may instead come from Indo-European *kwerp 'to turn', akin to Old Englishhweorfan 'to turn, change' (Englishwarp) and Greekκαρπόςkarpós 'wrist', perhaps referring to the way the mountain range bends or veers in an L-shape.[25]
Although commonly referred to as a mountain chain, the Carpathians do not form an uninterrupted chain of mountains, but consist of severalorographically and geologically distinctive groups. The northwestern Carpathians begin in Slovakia and southern Poland. They surroundTranscarpathia andTransylvania in a large semicircle, sweeping towards the southeast, and end on theDanube nearOrșova in Romania. The total length of the Carpathians is over 1,500 km (930 mi).
The mountain chain's width varies between 12 and 500 km (7 and 311 mi). The highest altitudes of the Carpathians occur where they are widest, in the Transylvanian plateau and in the southernTatra Mountains group. The highest range, in whichGerlachovský štít in Slovakia is the highest peak, is 2,655 m (8,711 ft) above sea level.
The Carpathians cover an area of 190,000 km2 (73,000 sq mi). After theAlps, they form the next-most extensive mountain system in Europe. Percentage of the range by country is:Czech Republic (3%) andAustria (1%) in the northwest throughSlovakia (21%),Poland (10%),Ukraine (10%),Romania (50%) toSerbia (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 onepermafrost and glacial area in the Tatra Mountains.[27]
The Carpathians, which attain an altitude over 2,500 m (8,200 ft) in only a few places, lack the bold peaks, extensive snowfields, largeglaciers, 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, andflora.
The Carpathians are separated from the Alps by theDanube, only meeting at theLeitha Mountains at Bratislava. The river also separates the Carpathians from theBalkan Mountains at Orșova in Romania. The valley of theMarch andOder separates the Carpathians from theSilesian andMoravian 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 theBlack Sea, are surrounded on all sides by plains. ThePannonian plain is to the southwest, the LowerDanubian Plain to the south, with thesouthern part being inBulgaria, and thenorthern – in (Romania), and theGalician plain to the northeast.
The mountains take the form of afold and thrust belt with generally northvergence 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.[30]
The external, generally northern, portion of the orogenic belt is a Tertiaryaccretionary wedge of a so-calledFlysch belt (theCarpathian 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 skinnednappes composed of Cretaceous to Paleogeneturbidites. Thrusting of the Flysch nappes over the Carpathian foreland caused the formation of theCarpathian foreland basin.[31] The boundary between the Flysch belt and internal zones of the orogenic belt in the western segment of the mountain range is marked by thePieniny Klippen Belt, a narrow complicated zone of polyphase compressional deformation, later involved in a supposedstrike-slip zone.[32]
Internal zones in western and eastern segments contain olderVariscan igneous massifs reworked in Mesozoicthick and thin-skinned nappes. During the MiddleMiocene this zone was affected by intensivecalc-alkaline[33]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[34] of theback-arcPannonian Basin.[35] The last volcanic activity occurred atCiomadul about 30,000 years ago.[33]
The mountains started to gain their current shape from the latestMiocene onward.[36] The slopes of the Carphartian contain at some locationssolifluction deposits.[36] Iron, gold and silver were found in great quantities[vague] in theWestern Carpathians. After the Roman emperorTrajan's conquest of Dacia, he brought back to Rome over 165 tons of gold and 330 tons of silver.[37]
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 byNorway spruce (Picea abies).Krummholz and alpine meadows occur above the treeline.[38]
Ingeopolitical 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.
A major part of the western and northeasternOuter Eastern Carpathians in Poland, Ukraine, and Slovakia is traditionally called theEastern Beskids.The border between the eastern and southern Carpathians is formed by thePredeal Pass, south of Brașov and thePrahova Valley.
The geological border between the Western and Eastern Carpathians runs approximately along the line (south to north) between the towns ofMichalovce,Bardejov,Nowy Sącz andTarnów. In older systems the border runs more in the east, along the line (north to south) along the riversSan andOsława (Poland), the town ofSnina (Slovakia) and river Tur'ia (Ukraine). Biologists shift the border even further to the east.
The section of the Carpathians within the borders ofRomania is commonly known as theRomanian 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)
The section of the Carpathians within the borders ofUkraine is commonly known as theUkrainian Carpathians. Classification of eastern sections of the Carpathians is particularly complex, since it was influenced by several overlapping traditions. Terms likeWooded Carpathians,Poloniny Mountains orEastern Beskids are often used in varying scopes by authors belonging to different traditions.
This is an (incomplete) list of the peaks of the Carpathians having summits over 2,500 metres (8,200 ft), with their heights, geologic divisions, and locations.
^ab[1]Archived 12 October 2017 at theWayback Machine "The Carpathians" European Travel Commission, in The Official Travel Portal of Europe, Retrieved 15 November 2016
^ab[2]Archived 19 November 2016 at theWayback Machine The Carpathian Project: Carpathian Mountains in Serbia, Institute for Spatial Planning, Faculty of Geography, University of Belgrade (2008), Retrieved: 15 November 2016
^abÇabej, Eqrem. (1972). Studime Filologjike. universiteti shtetëror i Tiranës.
^abÇabej, Eqrem (1985). "The Problem of the Place of Formation of the Albanian Language".The Albanians and their Territories. Academy of Sciences of Albania. Tiranë: 8 Nëntori. pp. 63–99. p. 67.
^[3]Archived 1 August 2019 at theWayback Machine 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
Blazovich, László (1994). "Kárpátok [Carpathians]". In Kristó, Gyula; Engel, Pál; Makk, Ferenc (eds.).Korai magyar történeti lexikon (9–14. század)[Encyclopedia of the Early Hungarian History (9th–14th centuries)] (in Hungarian). Akadémiai Kiadó. p. 332.ISBN963-05-6722-9.
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