Geology of the Pannonicum [antikvár]

I. Description of the "Pannonian Basin' 1. Introduction The area of Hungary is a round 93 000 km^ 88 000 km^ of which are underlain immediately by sediments and sedimentary rocks - Mesozoic and Paleozoic under some 4500 km^ and Tertiary under the rest. Surface shows of oil occur only on the north margin of the Tertiary basin, at the feet of the Bükk and Mátra Mountains, e.g. near Recsk and Nagybátony. Oil occurs there in Miocene tuffs and the quartzite gangue of hydrothermal ores associated with Tertiary andesitic eruptions. On the borders of the west Tertiary basin, beyond Hungary's frontiers, and on the east border of the Great Hungarian Plain at Derna-Brusturi (Rumania), there are economic petroleum deposits some of which have ascended to the surface; their reservoir rock is Pliocene sandstone. Besides these surface shows of hydrocarbons, traces of methane are noteworthy in the waters of many of the numerous artesian wells of several hundred metres depth, in the sedimentary basins. These methane-bearing waters rise from Neogene sandy clays, sands, and sandstones. To illustrate the general geologic features of the area, let us quote "Geology of Hungary", a comprehensive work by Prof. E. Vadász (1953): "The basic feature of (Hungary's) geologic structure is that, in its Neo-European position, it belongs to the Alpine Orogeny of Europe; some of its parts behave, however, differently from the Alps, and from one another as to mechanics of movement. . . The Hungarian portion of the Carpathian basin is subdivided into the Great Plain, the Little Plain and the Transdanubian Basin. All three extend beyond the frontiers. The Great and Little Plains are separated by the Hungarian Central Mountains; farther east, the Mátra and Bükk Mountains constitute the northern boundary of the Great Plain. In the west the Little Plain borders on the foothills of the Sopron and Kőszeg Mountains, considered as outposts of the Alps, and on the Hungarian sector of the Lajta Mountains. In the Trans- i: .'illV I ^ ^ I 'ill 'I , I 1 ; ' ¦¦ I