Hungary [antikvár]

MEGATECTONIC SETTINGHungaiy lies in the central part of the Middle Danube (Carpathian) Basin surrounded by the Alps, the Carpathians and the Dinarides. On a continental scale the Carpathian Basin itself is of central position, being surrounded by the East European Platform, the West European massifs and the South European mountain chains.Three major geolústorical periods are reflected in Hungary's geology:-a pre-Alpine evolutionary stage, difficult to reconstruct, connected with Central Europe's Paleozoic history,-stage belonging to the Mesozoic and Paleogene evolution of the Tethys: a "median area" produced by major tectonic movements synchronous with the Alpine orogeny, but characterized, in contrast witli the napped-folded tectonics of the orogenic belts, by an overwhelmingly faulted structure brought about by movements along transcurrent faults,-the Neogene evolutionary stage lasting since the beginning of the Miocene up to the present; a period characterized by high-amplitude subsidences and uplifts; the formation of the Pannonian Basin and highland ranges.According to the development patterns of pre-Tertiary formations, the territory of Hungary can be divided into two basically different megatectonic units (Fig. 1.).The two units are separated by the Mid-Hungarian Structure Zone traversing the country in ENEWSW direction.1. To the north of the Mid-Hungarian Structure Zone, there are units representing the continuation of the internal zones of the Alps, Dinarides and the West Carpathians or exhibiting features related to these. They are as follows:1. Units of the Austro-Alpine Nappe Systema) Penninic: The Kőszeg Mountains and the Vashegy (at Hungary's west-em border)^ where Jurassic to Lower Cretaceous metamorphites of greenschist fades crop out in the Rechnitz Window.