Eastern Pontic Mountains
| Eastern Pontic Mountains | |
|---|---|
 Map section ~ 200 × 450 km |
|
| Highest peak | Kaçkar Dağı ( 3932 m ) |
| location | Turkey |
| part of | Pontic Mountains |
| Coordinates | 40 ° 30 ′ N , 40 ° 0 ′ E |
| Age of the rock | Alpidian orogeny |
The Eastern Pontic Mountains ( Turkish Doğu Karadeniz Dağları ) are the eastern third of the Pontic Mountains in northeastern Turkey. Of the approximately 1000 km long Pontic mountain range , which runs through the entire north of Asia Minor parallel to the Black Sea , this almost 400 km long coastal mountain range is the highest and most geographically diverse part. With its parallel chains, it extends about 150 km inland. The river valleys of Melet Çayı in the west and Çoruh in the east border the mountains. Important mountain ranges are: Giresun Mountains , Gümüşhane Mountains , Zigana Mountains , Trabzon Mountains and the Kaskar Mountains (Kaçkar Dağları).
The heights of the largest peaks are between 3000 and 3900 meters, which makes them almost twice as high as the more western Pontic mountain ranges. At the border with Georgia , the coastal mountain range ends relatively suddenly at Batumi , while it continues to the southeast in the neighboring Ararat Mountains of Armenia (3000–5600 m) and beyond the Turkish eastern border in the Lesser Caucasus .
Geography and economy
There is only a few kilometers of narrow coastal strip between the Black Sea and the Eastern Pontic Mountains; The first three-thousand-meter peaks tower up 15–20 kilometers inland . This makes the area that makes up the eastern part of the Turkish Black Sea region one of the steepest mountain landscapes in the world. The individual mountain ranges mostly run in an east-west direction and reach the highest point in Kaçkar Dağı at 3932 m (see picture). The mountain is only about 70 km from the border with Georgia and can be easily seen from the flat surroundings of the port city of Batumi there.
Inland, the mountains are shaped by an extensive tectonic long valley furrow, in which the Kelkit and Çoruh rivers flow to the west and east and only break through in the lower reaches of the Black Sea. The pass between the two long valleys is 2200 m high and lies on the southern slope of Çakırgöl Dağı (3082 m). A little further to the south-east - near Erzurum - the Karasu also rises , but in contrast to Coruh and Kelkit it turns south to the Euphrates . The Kura rises in the far east of the mountains, in the Turkish northeastern province of Kars , which later becomes the most important river of Georgia and Azerbaijan . Despite its relative shortness, the Eastern Pontic Mountains are thus the watershed between a total of three seas (Black and Caspian Sea and Persian Gulf ).
The north-westerly winds cause heavy incline rain and have led to lush vegetation and dense forest cover on the mountain slopes, while further inland there is a kind of steppe climate with hard deciduous plants. The most important rice- growing areas in Turkey are located near the coast .
geology
The mountain range is part of the relatively young Alpine folds in geological terms, which run from Iberia over the Alps to the Caucasus, the Persian-Pakistani high mountains and the Himalayas. The name Pontos comes from the ancient Greek word for sea and especially the Black Sea ( Pontos Euxeinos ), or from the landscape of Pontos .
In the geomorphology the Ostpontische Mountains also is Northeast Anatolian Edge Mountains called. It is relatively often affected by earthquakes due to its young age . Its purely Alpid mountain formation distinguishes it from the western Pontic mountain ranges, which are not only significantly lower, but also partially represent the remaining trunk areas of the very old Variscikum . In contrast, the Eastern Pontic Mountains may have been a volcanic chain of islands in the past , before today's seabed of the Black Sea changed in situ from a continental to an oceanic crust .
Among other things, non-ferrous metals related to acidic volcanic rocks are to be cited as deposits . Also copper ores in porphyritic embossed area should be mentioned, however, somewhat less productive. However, there are no large coal deposits such as in the 500 km western province of Zonguldak . In addition to modest industry, forestry is also important, as are agricultural export products such as tea, tobacco and Pontic hazelnuts.
See also
Web links
- Mountains, forest and regional studies of Turkey
- Geology, Magmatism and Formation of Deposits in the Eastern Pontic Mountains (TU Berlin)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Article Ostpontisches Gebirge in the Great Soviet Encyclopedia (BSE) , 3rd edition 1969–1978 (Russian)
- ↑ Turkey map of the Faculty of Geography at Ankara University
