Hungary is in the Pannonian Basin in Central Europe, is surrounded by the Carpathians, Alps and Dinarides, but for the most part dominated by lowlands. Sixty-eight percent of the country is lowlands below 200 meters altitude. Hilly terrain covers 30% of the country, while mountains cover only 2%. The entire Pannonian Basin is in the Danube watershed. [1]
Hungary is mostly defined by Late Cenozoic geologic evolution. Large back-arc basins formed due to anomalous crust thinning and a high geothermal gradient. The Pannonian Basin is actually a system of basins, including the Great Plain Basin, the Vienna Basin, the Drava Basin and the Transylvanian Basin. The different sub-basins are separated by inselberg ranges, made of Paleozoic, Mesozoic, and Paleogene sedimentary rocks and Cenozoic igneous and sedimentary rocks.[ citation needed ]
The Eastern Alps extend into the northwest of Hungary as the Sopron and Kőszeg mountains, near the Austrian border and are made up of metamorphosed Paleozoic and Mesozoic rock sequences. The Transdanubian Range spans 250 kilometers, including hills and mountains. To the north of Lake Balaton, in the Balaton Highland, geologists have found Lower Paleozoic phyllite and carbonates. Northeast of Lake Balaton, in the Velence Hills, Carboniferous granite is most common. Triassic carbonates make up other parts of the Transdanubian mountains, although a small area of Jurassic, Cretaceous and Paleogene rocks are found in the central zone of the synform and control the basic structure of the mountains.[ citation needed ]
The North Hungarian Mountains have very complicated geology. Paleozoic slate and carbonate are found in the Szendor and Uppony Hills, and the Bükk mountains are slightly metamorphosed Upper Paleozoic and Jurassic sedimentary and igneous rocks. A few Carboniferous granites are in the southeast of the Mecsek mountains.[ citation needed ]
Lakes, rivers and river deltas deposited sediments in the basins between one kilometer and eight kilometers thick during the Late Miocene into the Pliocene, as the Pannonian Lake dominated the landscape. These sediments were covered over in the Quaternary by alluvial deposits, wind-blown sand and loess, which now makes up the surface of the Pannonian Plain.[ citation needed ]
Beudant, a professor at the University of Paris published the first writings about Hungarian geology in 1822. The Imperial and Royal Geological Survey of the Austro-Hungarian Empire conducted geologic mapping in Hungary between 1850 and 1865, and published maps between 1867 and 1871. The Royal Hungarian Geological Survey took over mapping after its creation in 1869. Widespread drilling for thousands of artesian wells and 500 thermal wells expanded geologic knowledge in the second half of the 19th century. Hungarian physicist and geophysicist, Loránd Eötvös carried out gravity measurements using the torsion balance technique, helping to launch geophysics. After his death, students named the Loránd Eötvös Geophysical Institute in his honor. By World War II independent Hungary had five active university geology departments.[ citation needed ]
Mapping increased after the war, with a growing staff at the Geological Survey and a new map was released in 1956. Understanding of Hungarian geology changed with the introduction of plate tectonics theories in the 1970s, which changed views on the formation of the Pannonian Basin.[ citation needed ]
At the time of the Treaty of Trianon, Hungary was rich in minerals, but most of these resources are now outside Hungary's borders in the Slovak Ore Mountains and the Apuseni Mountains in Transylvania. Today, Hungary is poor in natural resources. After the 1989 revolution, bauxite mining virtually ended and coal production dropped. Power plants still strip mine locally for lignite, and oil and gas are important resources.[ citation needed ]
Historically, bauxite was sometimes known as "Hungarian silver," due to large deposits of bauxite near Lake Balaton. As surface resource were depleted, mining went underground, lowering the karst water table. Bauxites formed in tropical climates in the Barremian age of the Early Cretaceous. Like Jamaican bauxites, heavy tropical rainfall stripped away other minerals draining into the porous underlying karst and creating sediments enriched in aluminum. [2]
The Fatra-Tatra Area or the Tatra-Fatra Belt of core mountains is a part of the Inner Western Carpathians, a subprovince of the Western Carpathians. Most of the area lies in Slovakia with small parts reaching into Austria and Poland. The highest summit of the whole Carpathians, the Gerlachovský štít at 2,655 m (8,711 ft), lies in the High Tatras range which belongs to this area.
The Western Carpathians are an arc-shaped mountain range, the northern branch of the Alpine-Himalayan fold and thrust system called the Alpide belt, which evolved during the Alpine orogeny. In particular, their pre-Cenozoic evolution is very similar to that of the Eastern Alps, and they constitute a transition between the Eastern Alps and the Eastern Carpathians.
The geology of Somalia is built on more than 700 million year old igneous and metamorphic crystalline basement rock, which outcrops at some places in northern Somalia. These ancient units are covered in thick layers of sedimentary rock formed in the last 200 million years and influenced by the rifting apart of the Somali Plate and the Arabian Plate. The geology of Somaliland, the de facto independent country recognized as part of Somalia, is to some degree better studied than that of Somalia as a whole. Instability related to the Somali Civil War and previous political upheaval has limited geologic research in places while heightening the importance of groundwater resources for vulnerable populations.
The geology of Ghana is primarily very ancient crystalline basement rock, volcanic belts and sedimentary basins, affected by periods of igneous activity and two major orogeny mountain building events. Aside from modern sediments and some rocks formed within the past 541 million years of the Phanerozoic Eon, along the coast, many of the rocks in Ghana formed close to one billion years ago or older leading to five different types of gold deposit formation, which gave the region its former name Gold Coast.
The geology of Cameroon is almost universally Precambrian metamorphic and igneous basement rock, formed in the Archean as part of the Congo Craton and the Central African Mobile Zone and covered in laterite, recent sediments and soils. Some parts of the country have sequences of sedimentary rocks from the Paleozoic, Mesozoic and Cenozoic as well as volcanic rock produced by the 1600 kilometer Cameroon Volcanic Line, which includes the still-active Mount Cameroon. The country is notable for gold, diamonds and some onshore and offshore oil and gas.
The geology of Malawi formed on extremely ancient crystalline basement rock, which was metamorphosed and intruded by igneous rocks during several orogeny mountain building events in the past one billion years. The rocks of the Karoo Supergroup and newer sedimentary units deposited across much of Malawi in the last 251 million years, in connection with a large rift basin on the supercontinent Gondwana and the more recent rifting that has created the East African Rift, which holds Lake Malawi. The country has extensive mineral reserves, many of them poorly understood or not exploited, including coal, vermiculite, rare earth elements and bauxite.
The geology of Mozambique is primarily extremely old Precambrian metamorphic and igneous crystalline basement rock, formed in the Archean and Proterozoic, in some cases more than two billion years ago. Mozambique contains greenstone belts and spans the Zimbabwe Craton, a section of ancient stable crust. The region was impacted by major tectonic events, such as the mountain building Irumide orogeny, Pan-African orogeny and the Snowball Earth glaciation. Large basins that formed in the last half-billion years have filled with extensive continental and marine sedimentary rocks, including rocks of the extensive Karoo Supergroup which exist across Southern Africa. In some cases these units are capped by volcanic rocks. As a result of its complex and ancient geology, Mozambique has deposits of iron, coal, gold, mineral sands, bauxite, copper and other natural resources.
The geology of Arkansas includes deep 1.4 billion year old igneous crystalline basement rock from the Proterozoic known only from boreholes, overlain by extensive sedimentary rocks and some volcanic rocks. The region was a shallow marine, riverine and coastal environment for much of the early Paleozoic as multi-cellular life became commonplace. At the end of the Paleozoic in the Permian the region experienced coal formation and extensive faulting and uplift related to the Ouachita orogeny mountain building event. Extensive erosion of new highlands created a mixture of continental and marine sediments and much of the state remained flooded even into the last 66 million years of the Cenozoic. In recent Pleistocene and Holocene time, glacial sediments poured into the region from the north, down major rivers, forming dunes and sedimentary ridges. Today, Arkansas has an active oil and gas industry, although hydraulic fracturing related earthquake swarms have limited extraction. Mining industries in the state also produce brines, sand, gravel and other industrial minerals.
The geology of Morocco formed beginning up to two billion years ago, in the Paleoproterozoic and potentially even earlier. It was affected by the Pan-African orogeny, although the later Hercynian orogeny produced fewer changes and left the Maseta Domain, a large area of remnant Paleozoic massifs. During the Paleozoic, extensive sedimentary deposits preserved marine fossils. Throughout the Mesozoic, the rifting apart of Pangaea to form the Atlantic Ocean created basins and fault blocks, which were blanketed in terrestrial and marine sediments—particularly as a major marine transgression flooded much of the region. In the Cenozoic, a microcontinent covered in sedimentary rocks from the Triassic and Cretaceous collided with northern Morocco, forming the Rif region. Morocco has extensive phosphate and salt reserves, as well as resources such as lead, zinc, copper and silver.
The geology of Senegal formed beginning more than two billion years ago. The Archean greenschist Birimian rocks common throughout West Africa are the oldest in the country, intruded by Proterozoic granites. Basins formed in the interior during the Paleozoic and filled with sedimentary rocks, including tillite from a glaciation. With the rifting apart of the supercontinent Pangaea in the Mesozoic, the large Senegal Basin filled with thick sequences of marine and terrestrial sediments. Sea levels declined in the Eocene forming large phosphate deposits. Senegal is blanketed in thick layers of terrestrial sediments formed in the Quaternary. The country has extensive natural resources, including gold, diamonds, and iron.
The geology of Ohio formed beginning more than one billion years ago in the Proterozoic eon of the Precambrian. The igneous and metamorphic crystalline basement rock is poorly understood except through deep boreholes and does not outcrop at the surface. The basement rock is divided between the Grenville Province and Superior Province. When the Grenville Province crust collided with Proto-North America, it launched the Grenville orogeny, a major mountain building event. The Grenville mountains eroded, filling in rift basins and Ohio was flooded and periodically exposed as dry land throughout the Paleozoic. In addition to marine carbonates such as limestone and dolomite, large deposits of shale and sandstone formed as subsequent mountain building events such as the Taconic orogeny and Acadian orogeny led to additional sediment deposition. Ohio transitioned to dryland conditions in the Pennsylvanian, forming large coal swamps and the region has been dryland ever since. Until the Pleistocene glaciations erased these features, the landscape was cut with deep stream valleys, which scoured away hundreds of meters of rock leaving little trace of geologic history in the Mesozoic and Cenozoic.
The geology of Bosnia & Herzegovina is the study of rocks, minerals, water, landforms and geologic history in the country. The oldest rocks exposed at or near the surface date to the Paleozoic and the Precambrian geologic history of the region remains poorly understood. Complex assemblages of flysch, ophiolite, mélange and igneous plutons together with thick sedimentary units are a defining characteristic of the Dinaric Alps, also known as the Dinaride Mountains, which dominate much of the country's landscape.
The geology of Kazakhstan includes extensive basement rocks from the Precambrian and widespread Paleozoic rocks, as well as sediments formed in rift basins during the Mesozoic.
The geology of Kyrgyzstan began to form during the Proterozoic. The country has experienced long-running uplift events, forming the Tian Shan mountains and large, sediment filled basins.
The geology of Uzbekistan consists of two microcontinents and the remnants of oceanic crust, which fused together into a tectonically complex but resource rich land mass during the Paleozoic, before becoming draped in thick, primarily marine sedimentary units.
The geology of Turkmenistan includes two different geological provinces: the Karakum, or South Turan Platform, and the Alpine Orogen.
The geology of Slovakia is structurally complex, with a highly varied array of mountain ranges and belts largely formed during the Paleozoic, Mesozoic and Cenozoic eras.
The geology of Croatia has some Precambrian rocks mostly covered by younger sedimentary rocks and deformed or superimposed by tectonic activity.
The geology of Saudi Arabia includes Precambrian igneous and metamorphic basement rocks, exposed across much of the country. Thick sedimentary sequences from the Phanerozoic dominate much of the country's surface and host oil.
The geology of Yukon includes sections of ancient Precambrian Proterozoic rock from the western edge of the proto-North American continent Laurentia, with several different island arc terranes added through the Paleozoic, Mesozoic and Cenozoic, driving volcanism, pluton formation and sedimentation.
