Where is the carpathian basin

This thick crust beneath the Southern Alps is consistent with the compilations of Tesauro et al. However, the relatively shallow Moho we find beneath the Northern Calcareous Alps differs significantly Fig. However, we again note a significant difference Fig. Our shear wave velocity model clearly identifies the locations of the basin depocentres and their relative depth extents. The images suggest that the low velocity zone below the Vienna Basin dips to the SSW, consistent with the Vienna basin model of Lankreijer et al.

The Transylvanian Basin is the major sedimentary basin in the southeastern part of the Carpathian system, bounded by the Apuseni Mountains to the west, and the Carpathians to the east and south. Tesauro et al. This fast structure appears coherent right through the crust, dipping to the NE beneath the Transylvanian Basin.

Our group velocity maps show good quantitative agreement with known geological features. Our shear wave velocity model SCP-ANT-VS1 obtained from the inversion of the group velocity maps has been compared, where possible, with previous geophysical investigations.

In general our new model is validated by these comparisons, but some intriguing differences are found, notably in relation to crustal thickness estimates beneath the Apuseni Mountains and the Southeast Carpathians. To summarize the main features of the model:. Most of the Pannonian and Vienna Basin regions at these depths are relatively fast, presumably related to shallowing of the Moho.

Houseman, G. Stuart, Y. Ren, B. Dando, P. Lorinczi, O. Ionescu, M. Radulian, V. Raileanu, D. Tataru, B. Zaharia, F. Borleanu, C. Neagoe, G. Gainariu, D.

Radovanovic, V. Kovacevic, D. Valcic, S. Petrovic-Cacic, G. Krunic SSS ; A. Brisbourne, D. Hawthorn, V. The authors thank N.

Rawlinson of Australian National University, for making available his 2-D non-linear inversion code, M. Schimmel for his non-linear phase weighted stacking code and R. Herrmann of Saint Louis University, St. Louis, Missouri, for providing his seismological software package, which is used for the dispersion curve inversion.

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Sign In or Create an Account. Sign In. Advanced Search. Search Menu. Article Navigation. Close mobile search navigation Article Navigation. Volume Article Contents Abstract. Crustal structure of the Carpathian—Pannonian region from ambient noise tomography. Yong Ren , Yong Ren. E-mail: earyr leeds. Oxford Academic. Bogdan Grecu. Graham Stuart. Gregory Houseman. South Carpathian Project Working Group. Revision received:.

Select Format Select format. Permissions Icon Permissions. Abstract We use ambient noise tomography to investigate the crust and uppermost mantle structure beneath the Carpathian—Pannonian region of Central Europe. Surface waves and free oscillations , Seismic tomography , Crustal structure , Europe. Open in new tab Download slide. We have used continuous vertical component seismograms to obtain two-station cross-correlation functions on day-length waveforms to estimate Rayleigh-wave Green's functions.

The raw data had first their instrument response, mean and trend removed. The cross-correlations are undertaken after one-bit normalization Bensen et al. The object of the tomographic inversion is to provide a model of the group velocity variation which best explains the interstation traveltimes.

New insight into Cainozoic sedimentary basins and Palaeozoic suture zones in southeast Australia from ambient noise surface wave tomography. Google Scholar Crossref. Search ADS. Current limits of resolution for surface wave tomography in North America. Application of stacking and inversion techniques to 3D wide-angle reflection and refraction seismic data of the Eastern Alps.

Processing seismic ambient noise data to obtain reliable broad. Crustal structure due to collisional and escape tectonics in the Eastern Alps region based on profiles Alp01 and Alp02 from the ALP seismic experiment,. Seismological structure of the Carpathian-Pannonian region of central Europe. Teleseismic tomography of the mantle in the Carpathian-Pannonian region of central Europe.

Recovering the Green's function from field-field correlations in an open scattering medium. Mantle earthquakes in the absence of subduction? Continental delamination in the Romanian Carpathians. Convergence and extension driven by lithospheric gravitational instability: evolution of the Alpine-Carpathian-Pannonian system. Formation and deformation of the Pannonian Basin: constraints from observational data. Intra-orogenic extension driven by gravitational instability: Carpathian-Pannonian orogeny.

Dynamic modeling of the transition from passive to active rifting, application to the Pannonian basin. Crustal thickness in Vrancea area, Romania from S to P converted waves. Surface-wave tomography from ambient seismic noise of accelerograph networks in southern Korea. Subspace methods for large scale inverse problems involving multiple parameter classes. Quantitative subsidence analysis and forward modelling of the Vienna and Danube basins: thin-skinned versus thick-skinned extension.

Foreland of the Romanian Carpathians Controls on late orogenic sedimentary basin evolution and Paratethys paleogeography. Ambient noise Rayleigh wave tomography in western Sichuan and eastern Tibet. High-resolution teleseismic body-wave tomography beneath SE Romania—I. Implications for three-dimensional versus one-dimensional crustal correction strategies with a new crustal velocity model. Combination of paleomagnetic and stress data—a case study from North Hungary.

Surface wave tomography of the western United States from ambient seismic noise: Rayleigh wave group velocity maps. Timing of rotational motion of Apuseni Mountains Romania —paleomagnetic data from Tertiary magmatic rocks. Upper mantle beneath the Eger Rift Central Europe : plume or asthenosphere upwelling? Interpretation of subhorizontal crustal reflections by metamorphic and rheologic effects in the eastern part of the Pannonian Basin.

Wave front evolution in strongly heterogeneous layered media using the fast marching method. Multiple reflection and transmission phases in complex layered media using a multistage fast marching method. Upper mantle structures beneath the Carpathian—Pannonian region: implications for geodynamics of the continental collision. Transform faulting, extension, and subduction in the Carpathian Pannonian Region.

Using instantaneous phase coherence for signal extraction from ambient noise data at a local to a global scale. Extracting the Green's function from the correlation of coda waves: a derivation based on stationary phase. Findings of detailed genetic analysis have independently corroborated our assumptions regarding the evolution of this taxon [ 74 ].

The final part of the story is rather heartbreaking as this unique Middle Pleistocene refugee forming a cradle for various endemic gastropod taxa, including Theodoxus prevostianus , is bound to fully disappear in a couple of years. The last members of the endemic Microcolpia Melanopsis parreyssii parreyssii Phillipi [ 6 ] are living among artificial conditions in the aquarium of a Hungarian research institute thanks to the quick response of dedicated zoologists to the human-induced desiccation of the lakebed of Lake St.

Although there have been measures taken to restore the previous conditions, the newly created artificial thermal lake system may not fully be capable to fulfill its preservational role as refugia in the future. Yet our records have clearly pointed to the importance of hot-water spring-fed thermal lakes in the preservation of mollusks even during the coldest periods of the ice age in the area of the Carpathian Basin. As several such systems are known from various parts of the basin as well as the transitional zone to the Carpathian Mts, one can presume that these also could have a significant role in the survival of warmth-loving mollusk taxa during the cold spells of the ice age.

The other, the Rejtek rock shelter, found at an elevation of m ASL was formed in Jurassic limestone. Both cave systems are facing south. According to the retrieved vertebrate fauna and recovered archeology, sediment accumulation must have initiated from the terminal part of the last glacial in these karstic depressions. Fine-stratigraphic sampling of the identified lithological horizons yielded numerous charcoal pieces.

The taxonomic composition of these charred plant remains indicated the emergence of mixed taiga woodland at this elevation during the last stage of the last glacial [ 45 , 46 , 47 , 48 ]. Besides the clear dominance of spruce and Scots pine, scattered patches of deciduous elements like elm, oak, lime, maple, beech, ash, as well as hazel were also present in these woodlands.

Unfortunately, his observations were by no means welcomed by the majority of Hungarian botanists of his time. It was only in when a British-Hungarian research group managed to corroborate his presumption independently [ 49 , 50 , 51 , 52 , 55 , 56 ]. The malacological remains of both caves have been scientifically evaluated along with a revision of the charcoal remains complemented by 14C dating of the major stratigraphic units sampled in the s [ 55 , 56 ].

According to the results of these investigations, Central European woodland mollusk elements prevailed in this area from even the last glacial onward Figure 4.

The prevailing taxon of the Late Glacial horizon is Cochlodina cerata. These findings have been corroborated by later studies on the Quaternary mollusk fauna of the Hungarian Highland and the Western Carpathians [ 85 , 86 , 87 , 88 , 89 , 90 ]. It must be noted that in Ref. Cold-loving and cold-resistant elements in the accessory fauna of the Cochlodina cerata horizon are represented by a single taxon, presently dwelling in beech and pine woodlands: Discus ruderatus.

However, warmth-loving elements like Bradybaena fruticum and Euomphalia strigella have also been recorded in this part of the profiles. Consequently, the general composition of the mollusk fauna is clearly in line with the observations and conclusions made on the basis of charcoal remains.

Namely, the presence of refugia for temperate thermophilous woodland taxa within a Late Glacial mixed taiga forest [ 45 , 46 , 47 , 48 , 49 , 50 , 51 , 52 ]. The collective appearance of Discus perspectivus and Discus ruderatus indicates the development of a dual refugia in the study area [ 49 ], i. According to our findings, rock walls and rock surfaces with a southern exposure in the inner Subcarpathian zone of the Carpathian Mts at suitable heights between and m ASL must have had special microclimatic conditions angle of incoming radiation, minimal height for air humidity condensation , which allowed for the emergence of temperate woodland refugia [ 53 , 54 , 55 , 56 , 67 ], even during the coldest periods of the ice age [ 91 , 92 ].

Similar woodlands could have developed at the ecotone of floodplains and foothill areas of island-like hills in the heart of the basin as well [ 93 , 94 ]. Both sites are located in an interdune depression hosting initially an oligotrophic lake during the ice age, which developed into a calcareous lake system finally evolving into a eutrophic lake then a marshland. According to the available absolute chronology, the emergence of an oligotrophic lake initiated around 20—22 ka during the coldest period of the last glacial: the last glacial maximum LGM.

However, the first mollusk remains turn up in deposits dated to the Late Glacial only. This paleoassemblage composed of cold-loving and thermophilous elements can be clearly synchronized by the findings of pollen analysis indicating the presence of a mixed taiga hosting stands of pine and various temperate arboreal elements [ 55 , 95 ]. These records thus indicate the development of a mixed taiga woodland at the interface of windblown sand and floodplain areas in the NE part of the GHP during the ice age, whose composition was the same as the mixed taiga woodlands of the foothill areas mentioned in the previous chapter.

A significant difference in the mollusk faunas is the appearance of a Pontian gastropod taxon, which evolved during the Tertiary in the Carpathian Basin [ 96 , 97 ], in the marshland sequence. This gastropod taxon, the Pomatias rivulare , has a clear preference for milder climatic conditions Figure 5. The European distribution of Pomatias elegans and Pomatias rivulare and their Hungarian fossil, pre-modern and modern occurrences.

However, in this latter profile, the Pontian Pomatias rivulare is substituted by its Atlanto-Mediterranean vicariant counterpart: Pomatias elegans. On the basis of this record, the assumption that the Atlantic and Central European distribution of this taxon is connected to the Middle Holocene [ ] must be refuted. The appearance of Pomatias elegans coevally with our Hungarian records was noted in the Early Mesolithic cultural layer of the Italian Grotta di Latronico Cave as well.

Shells of this taxon have been retrieved in deposits older than cal BP years and those dated to the Postglacial and Early Holocene as well [ ]. Representatives of this taxon with similar ages have been reported from Iberia [ ] as well as Southern France [ ]. In these latter examples, the first representative of the gastropod taxon Pomatias elegans likewise appears in layers older than the Mesolithic horizon dated at cal BP years. This Early Holocene fauna is marked by the appearance of such taxa, which are restricted to the areas of the Carpathians, the Transylvanian Mid-Mountains, and the Hungarian Mid-Mountains and unique to the Great Hungarian Plains, serving as outstanding indicator species in both the stratigraphy and the paleoenvironmental conditions because they tended to appear in the mildest interglacial periods enjoying the greatest rainfall during the Pleistocene [ 25 , 26 ].

The exuberant woodland malacofauna is made up of highly tolerant species appearing in uniform quantities in the closed woodland environment, which inhabit the mountains of Central Europe and are widespread in the area extending from the Balkan Peninsula up to the Baltics. The most characteristic elements of this community are the following: the Carpathian-Baltic Ruthenica filograna , Macrogastra latestriata , and Bulgarica cana ; the Carpathian Perforatella vicina ; the Central European Acicula polita , Laciniaria plicata , and Perforatella bidentata ; the Central and Southern European Discus perspectivus and Oxychilus glaber ; the European Carychium tridentatum , Vertigo pusilla , Ena obscura , Vitrea crystallina , Aegopinella pura , and Cochlodina laminata ; and the Euxinic Pomatias rivulare or Atlanto-Mediterranean Pomatias elegans.

Both regions hosting the referred marshland had direct connections with the foothill areas of the surrounding mid-mountains, the south facing escarpments via the river valleys based on our subfossil distribution data of the mentioned woodland elements. It was these foothill areas which functioned as refugia for woodland elements from the Postglacial onward [ 55 , 56 ].

These observations gave an impetus to further comparative paleobiogeographical investigations using our malacological records deriving from different parts of the basin and covering the period of the Late Pleistocene.

A comparative analysis of these profiles with that or Crvenka enabled us to reconstruct the Late Glacial paleobiogeography of the southern part of the basin and tackle the spatial distribution of refugia for temperate forest steppe and steppe gastropod elements.

The presence of numerous interstadial horizons representing the Greenland Interstadials between GI17 and GI2 could have been identified Figure 6. The relatively low resolution of sampling hampered the identification of all GI events at the centennial scale.

Based on our malacological data, the milder periods were characterized by higher temperatures and decreasing humidity resulting in a fixation and expansion of short grassland vegetation and the accompanying steppe-dwelling mollusk elements, while the cooler periods experienced only a minor drop in temperature and increasing humidity favoring the expansion of high grasses and some arboreal elements scattered trees and bushes. This type of change is especially pronounced in the horizon corresponding to the last glacial maximum.

During this time an expansion of cold-loving, tundra-dweller mollusks is recorded in the northern and western ice-free areas of Europe. Conversely, this period is characterized by the appearance of closed woodland dwelling mollusks coevally with the cold-loving Arcto-Alpine elements. According to the trends observed, the southern parts of the GHP were characterized by fluctuating expansions and retreat of short grass and high-grass grasslands during the warmer and cooler periods of the late glacial.

Thanks to the mosaic-like complexity of these habitats, mollusk taxa with contrasting ecological preferences regarding humidity, temperature, and vegetation cover could have existed side by side during the Late Pleistocene. Humidity increases during the coolings favored the expansion of mollusks resulting in a highly diverse fauna.

Conversely, the warmer periods creating drier conditions decreased the diversity. This unique feature of the southern part of the Carpathian Basin is by no means a newly described phenomenon. It has been known for ca. The most important difference is seen in the constant presence of xerothermophylous grassland elements Cochlicopa lubricella , Granaria frumentum , Pupilla triplicata , Chondrula tridens , and Helicopsis striata during the entire Late Pleistocene and their clear dominance in periods corresponding to the interstadials [ 67 , 69 ].

It must be noted that the dominance peaks of the individual taxa in different profiles of the Southern GHP may not be fully coeval thanks to variations in local environmental and microclimatic conditions. Yet the general fluctuations of the similar warmth-loving paleoecological groups in time are synchronous between the individual profiles [ 67 , 69 ]. It is also important to note that during the stadials characterized by only small temperature drops, the dominant elements of the mollusk fauna were those of the Holarctic forest steppe and high-grass-steppe dwellers, primarily members of the taxon Vallonia costata.

During the interstadials, the fauna was prevailed by taxa characteristic of short grass Pontian grassland dwellers, which occupy the central driest Pannonian forest steppes of the Carpathian Basin Cochlicopa lubricella , Granaria frumentum , and Helicopsis striata paleoassemblage. At the same time, elements of Holarctic forest steppes were also present in the malacofauna, although highly subordinately.

Similarly, the Pontian grassland elements were likewise present in the mollusk assemblages of the stadials. All these data indicate the presence of an ecotone of temperate Pannonian forest steppe-steppe areas composed of highly complex patches of short and high grassland types between 60, and 24, cal BP years.

The recurring macroclimatic changes of the Late Pleistocene controlled a cyclical expansion and retreat of these environmental mosaics [ 67 ]. The best indicator element of temperate grasslands is Granaria frumentum. The largest aerial distribution of this taxon is recorded during the Late Glacial ca. During this time the presence of this taxon could have been observed in the areas of the Transdanubian Mid-Mountains in Western Hungary and the Sub-Carpathian alpine region as well besides that of the GHP.

This spatial distribution must have developed during the last interglacial MIS 5 , when this taxon expanded to almost all areas of Central Europe, including the Czech Basin [ ], the Vienna Basin [ ], as well as the Alps and the Carpathian Mts to a height of ca.

All these indicate the expansion of temperate forest steppes to the foothill areas and the lower highlands during the drier periods of the last interglacial characterized by higher temperatures as well. After 60 ka, marking the onset of the last glacial, there is a gradual retreat in the distribution of Granaria frumentum to scattered habitats characterized by favorable microclimatic conditions. There is another major expansion of the referred taxon which can be dated between 40 and 30 ka.

The highest dominances are recorded in the southern parts of the GHP with gradually decreasing northward trends. There is a major retreat between 30 and 24 ka to scattered refugia found in the southern part of the Carpathian Basin again, which hallmarked the start of the coldest phase of the last glacial.

According to the findings of comprehensive studies done using our own mollusk data compiled into a database Hungarian Quartermalacological Database , the southern part of the GHP, including the area of Vojvodina, Serbia, as well, was a transitional fluctuation zone between the refugia of the southern foothills of the Carpathians, the marginal area of the Dinarides and its northern island hills.

This zone harbored an ecotone of temperate Pannonian grassland and forest steppe during the warmer, drier periods of the Late Pleistocene. Conversely, this vegetation complex was replaced by a boreal forest steppe during the cooler periods, similar to the taiga steppes of Southern Siberia today. This special evolution of the vegetation is utterly different from that of the northern parts of the Carpathian Basin as well as Northern, Western, and Central Europe.

The difference is attributable to the regional and local higher temperatures of the ice age resulting in drier conditions in the former areas. Thus the most important ecological driver, regarding the evolution of both the vegetation and the mollusk fauna, in the southern areas of the basin was humidity.

The higher aridity of this area during the Late Glacial is attributable partly to the high distance from the seas and oceans. In addition, the intensification of the so-called basin effect as a result of the uplift of the surrounding mountains.

The area of the Carpathian Basin is characterized by a large-scale environmental mosaicity present on the scale of the basin. This complexity increases downward to the regional and local scales. The major driving factor on the scale of the basin is the regional overlap of various climatic influences ranging from the Atlantic, Alpine, and Continental influences to the Sub-Mediterranean-Pontic climatic effects.

According to our data, this type of mosaic-like complexity of the environment developed even during the ice age and controlled the evolution of the mollusk fauna both on the regional and local scales. Geomorphology, bedrock, groundwater table, exposition, as well as soil conditions further increased the macro-scale mosaicity on the regional and local scales. These regional environmental mosaics functioned as the ice age refugia for terrestrial and freshwater warmth-loving gastropods.

Long-term conservation of these is the key to the preservation of the natural biota of the basin among changing climatic conditions. Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3. Help us write another book on this subject and reach those readers. Login to your personal dashboard for more detailed statistics on your publications. Edited by Sajal Ray.

Pacheco-Heredia, Juan A.