Eastern Carpathian Foothills as a

geographical Geography (from Ancient Greek ; combining 'Earth' and 'write', literally 'Earth writing') is the study of the lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena of Earth. Geography is an all-encompassing discipline that seeks an understanding o ...

term designates transitional region in the western parts of

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

and northeastern parts of

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

, between

Eastern Carpathian Mountains Divisions of the Carpathians are a categorization of the Carpathian mountains system. Below is a detailed overview of the major subdivisions and ranges of the Carpathian Mountains. The Carpathians are a "subsystem" of a bigger Alps-Himalaya S ...

to the southwest and number of plain regions to the east and north (bordering

Moldavian Plateau The Moldavian Plateau () is a geographic area of the historical region of Moldavia, spanning nowadays the east and northeast of Romania, most of Moldova (except the south), and most of the Chernivtsi Oblast of Ukraine (where it is known as the ''P ...

to the southeast and east,

Podillia Upland The Podolian Upland (Podolian Plateau) or Podillia Upland (, ''Podilska vysochyna'') is a highland area in southwestern Ukraine, on the left (northeast) bank of the Dniester River, with small portions in its western extent stretching into easter ...

to the northeast and east,

Roztochia Upland Roztocze () is a range of hills in east-central Poland and western Ukraine which rises from the Lublin Upland and extends southeastward through Solska Forest and across the border into Ukrainian Podolia. Low and rolling, the range is approximatel ...

to the north, Sian Lowland to the northwest). Its average elevation is around

above sea level Height above mean sea level is a measure of a location's vertical distance (height, elevation or altitude) in reference to a vertical datum based on a historic mean sea level. In geodesy, it is formalized as orthometric height. The zero level ...

. The region stretches across

Lviv Lviv ( or ; ; ; see #Names and symbols, below for other names) is the largest city in western Ukraine, as well as the List of cities in Ukraine, fifth-largest city in Ukraine, with a population of It serves as the administrative centre of ...

Ivano-Frankivsk Ivano-Frankivsk (, ), formerly Stanyslaviv, Stanislav and Stanisławów, is a city in western Ukraine. It serves as the administrative centre of Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast as well as Ivano-Frankivsk Raion within the oblast. Ivano-Frankivsk also host ...

and

Chernivtsi Oblast Chernivtsi Oblast (), also referred to as Chernivechchyna (), is an oblast (province) in western Ukraine, consisting of the northern parts of the historical regions of Bukovina and Bessarabia. It has an international border with Romania and Moldo ...

s and

Suceava County Suceava County () is a county (') of Romania. Most of its territory lies in the southern part of the Historical regions of Romania, historical region of Bukovina, while the remainder forms part of Western Moldavia proper. The county seat and the ...

Description

The region represents a portion of a large foredeep ( Carpathian Foredeep) that formed during the

Miocene epoch The Miocene ( ) is the first geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and means "less recent" ...

in front of the folding

Carpathian Mountains The Carpathian Mountains or Carpathians () are a range of mountains forming an arc across Central Europe and Southeast Europe. Roughly long, it is the third-longest European mountain range after the Ural Mountains, Urals at and the Scandinav ...

. The outer zone of the foredeep has as its foundation the Podolian Platform; the inner zone consists of severely dislocated

flysch Flysch () is a sequence of sedimentary rock layers that progress from deep-water and turbidity flow deposits to shallow-water shales and sandstones. It is deposited when a deep basin forms rapidly on the continental side of a mountain building ep ...

deposits. The foredeep itself is filled with thick Miocene deposits of clays,

argillite Argillite () is a fine-grained sedimentary rock composed predominantly of Friability, indurated clay particles. Argillaceous rocks are basically lithified muds and Pelagic sediment, oozes. They contain variable amounts of silt-sized particles. T ...

s, calcareous clays, and sandstones covered by diluvial and

alluvial deposit Alluvium (, ) is loose clay, silt, sand, or gravel that has been deposited by running water in a stream bed, on a floodplain, in an alluvial fan or beach, or in similar settings. Alluvium is also sometimes called alluvial deposit. Alluvium is ...

s. At the end of the

Pliocene epoch The Pliocene ( ; also Pleiocene) is the epoch in the geologic time scale that extends from 5.33 to 2.58

the region was an accumulative-denudational

peneplain In geomorphology and geology, a peneplain is a low-relief plain formed by protracted erosion. This is the definition in the broadest of terms, albeit with frequency the usage of peneplain is meant to imply the representation of a near-final (or ...

covered by

fluvial A river is a natural stream of fresh water that flows on land or inside caves towards another body of water at a lower elevation, such as an ocean, lake, or another river. A river may run dry before reaching the end of its course if it ru ...

deposits of sand,

silt Silt is granular material of a size between sand and clay and composed mostly of broken grains of quartz. Silt may occur as a soil (often mixed with sand or clay) or as sediment mixed in suspension (chemistry), suspension with water. Silt usually ...

, and clay originating from the Carpathians. As a result of an uplift at the end of the Pliocene and the beginning of the

Pleistocene epoch The Pleistocene ( ; referred to colloquially as the ''ice age, Ice Age'') is the geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fin ...

the rivers intensified their erosion and sculpted into the surface a number of wide valleys, lowlands, and intervening ridges. The uplift of Eastern Carpathian Foothills was not uniform, however, and the relief features are partly of tectonic origin. In the Dnieper glacial phase the northeastern part of Eastern Carpathian Foothills was occupied by a lobe of the European continental glacier, and the meltwaters temporarily ponded. By the end of the Pleistocene epoch the region was covered by deposits of

loess A loess (, ; from ) is a clastic rock, clastic, predominantly silt-sized sediment that is formed by the accumulation of wind-blown dust. Ten percent of Earth's land area is covered by loesses or similar deposition (geology), deposits. A loess ...

. At present the rivers from the Carpathian Mountains, most notably the

Stryi River The Stryi () is a river in western Ukraine. It starts in the Carpathian Mountains and snakes through the mountains running for . After it passes Stryi. The river continues for another before joining the Dniester near Khodoriv. Route The ri ...

, carry silt and sand on to Eastern Carpathian Foothills and deposit them in their floodplains.

Regions

* Upper Dniester Depression * Kalush Depression * Voinyliv Upland * Stanislaviv Depression *

Pokuttia Upland Pokuttia, also known as Pokuttya or Pokutia, (; ; ) is an historical area of East-Central Europe, situated between the Dniester and Cheremosh rivers and Carpathian Mountains, in the southwestern part of modern Ukraine. Although the historic hear ...

Bukovinian Subcarpathians Bukovinian Subcarpathians (, ''Obcinele Bucovinei'') is a geographic area in the NNE of Romania (Suceava County) and SWW of Ukraine (Chernivtsi Oblast), situated to the east and north-east of the Eastern Carpathian Mountains. It is a subunit of t ...

** Chernivtsi Upland ** Storozhynets Plateau Intervalley ridges rise above the region or more. The highest point, Mount Tsetsyna, near

Chernivtsi Chernivtsi (, ; , ;, , see also #Names, other names) is a city in southwestern Ukraine on the upper course of the Prut River. Formerly the capital of the historic region of Bukovina, which is now divided between Romania and Ukraine, Chernivt ...

has elevation of . Major intervalley ridges include Drohobych Ridge, Middle Pricarpathian Ridge, Southern Pokuttia Ridge, Seret-Prut Ridge, and the Ridges of Bukovina. Among local lowlands there are Upper Dniester Depression, Kalush Depression, Stanislaviv Depression, Halych-Bukachivtsi Basin, Kolomyia-Chernivtsi Basin, Seret Basin.

External links

Subcarpathia
at

Encyclopedia of Ukraine The ''Encyclopedia of Ukraine'' (), published from 1984 to 2001, is a fundamental work of Ukrainian Studies. Development The work was created under the auspices of the Shevchenko Scientific Society in Europe (Sarcelles, near Paris). As the ...

Geography of Lviv Oblast. Subcarpathia
Carpathian Foothills {{Ukraine-geo-stub