Physical Geography of the North Hungarian Mountains

Abstract

The members of the North Hungarian Mountains are built of mainly Miocene andesitic volcanoes. They were strato-volcanoes with single volcanic vents, and during their evolution calderas developed. The only one exception is the Zemplén Mountains in northeast, where centro-labial volcanoes developed. In the macro-region the Bükk and Aggtelek Mountains built of carbonates, thus they have very rich surface and subsurface karstic form assemblage. These morpho-lithological characteristics of the meso-region determine its natural values and potential environmental conflicts too. In the volcanic mountains the hydro-thermal activity resulted in the development of precious and non-ferrous metal ores, but nowadays they are not exploited. In the intra-mountain basins and in the forelands of the mountains considerable amount of brown coal (its mining terminated) and lignite deposited. The exploitation of the latest is in progress, and the need for reclamation is continuous. In the twentieth century the macro-region was the industrial centre of Hungary, therefore several environmental conflicts should be solved in the future.