The Pannonian Sea was a shallow ancient

sea A sea is a large body of salt water. There are particular seas and the sea. The sea commonly refers to the ocean, the interconnected body of seawaters that spans most of Earth. Particular seas are either marginal seas, second-order section ...

, where the

Pannonian Basin The Pannonian Basin, with the term Carpathian Basin being sometimes preferred in Hungarian literature, is a large sedimentary basin situated in southeastern Central Europe. After the Treaty of Trianon following World War I, the geomorpholog ...

Central Europe Central Europe is a geographical region of Europe between Eastern Europe, Eastern, Southern Europe, Southern, Western Europe, Western and Northern Europe, Northern Europe. Central Europe is known for its cultural diversity; however, countries in ...

is now. During its history it lost its connections with the neighbouring seas and became a lake. The Pannonian Sea existed from about 10 Ma (million years ago) until 1 Ma, during the

Miocene The Miocene ( ) is the first epoch (geology), 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 mea ...

and

Pliocene The Pliocene ( ; also Pleiocene) is the epoch (geology), epoch in the geologic time scale that extends from 5.33 to 2.58Paratethys Sea, until about 10 million years ago, when a Miocene uplift of the

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 ...

isolated the sea from the rest of Paratethys. During its first historical phase, the Pannonian Sea had a western connection with the

Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern Eur ...

through the territories of the modern

Ligurian Sea The Ligurian Sea is an arm of the Mediterranean Sea. It lies between the Italian Riviera ( Liguria) and the island of Corsica. The sea is thought to have been named after the ancient Ligures people. Geography The sea borders Italy as far as ...

Bavaria Bavaria, officially the Free State of Bavaria, is a States of Germany, state in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the list of German states by area, largest German state by land area, comprising approximately 1/5 of the total l ...

, and Vienna Basin. Through the

Đerdap The Iron Gates (; ; ; Hungarian language, Hungarian: ''Vaskapu-szoros'') is a Canyon, gorge on the river Danube. It forms part of the boundary between Serbia (to the south) and Romania (north). In the broad sense it encompasses a route of ; ...

Strait, the Pannonian Sea was linked to the Paratethys in the

Wallachia Wallachia or Walachia (; ; : , : ) is a historical and geographical region of modern-day Romania. It is situated north of the Lower Danube and south of the Southern Carpathians. Wallachia was traditionally divided into two sections, Munteni ...

n- Pontic Basin. The Pannonian Sea was also attached to the

Aegean Sea The Aegean Sea is an elongated embayment of the Mediterranean Sea between Europe and Asia. It is located between the Balkans and Anatolia, and covers an area of some . In the north, the Aegean is connected to the Marmara Sea, which in turn con ...

through the modern Preševo Valley. The Pannonian Sea existed for about 9 million years. Throughout its diverse history the salinity of the sea often shifted. The decrease of salinity resulted in

endemic fauna Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

. Eventually, the sea lost its connection to the Paratethys and became a lake permanently (''Pannonian Lake''). Its last remnant, the Slavonian Lake, dried up in the

Pleistocene 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 ...

epoch. The remnants of the former islands of the Pannonian Sea are the modern Pannonian island mountains (

Mecsek Mecsek (; ; Serbian language, Serbian: ''Meček'' or Мечек; ) is a mountain range in southern Hungary. It is situated in the Baranya (region), Baranya region, in the north of the city of Pécs. Etymology The Hungarian toponym "Mecsek" deriv ...

Papuk Papuk is the largest mountain in the Slavonia region in eastern Croatia, near the city of Požega, Croatia, Požega. It extends between Bilogora to the northwest, Krndija to the east, and Ravna Gora (Slavonia), Ravna gora and Psunj to the south ...

, Psunj,

Krndija Krndija is a mountain in Slavonia, Croatia, extending eastwards from Papuk. It is located south of Orahovica and Našice and north of Požega. The westernmost point of Krndija is the mountain pass that connects Orahovica with Kutjevo; the eas ...

, Dilj,

Fruška Gora Fruška gora ( sr-Cyrl, Фрушка гора) is a mountain in Syrmia, with most of the mountain being part of Serbia and its westernmost edge extending into eastern Croatia. The Serbian part of the mountain forms the country's oldest National p ...

, and Vršac Mountains). Despite their location,

Lake Balaton Lake Balaton () is a freshwater rift lake in the Transdanubian region of Hungary. It is the List of largest lakes of Europe, largest lake in Central Europe, and one of the region's foremost tourist destinations. The Zala River provides the larges ...

and

Lake Neusiedl Lake Neusiedl (, ; or ; ; ; ), or Fertő (), is the largest endorheic lake in Central Europe, straddling the Austrian– Hungarian border. The lake covers , of which is on the Austrian side and on the Hungarian side. The lake's drainage basi ...

, which appeared during the last 20,000 years, have no relation to the ancient sea.

References

External links

{{Commons category, Pannonian Sea
Map of the Pannonian Sea
(in Hungarian)
Map of the Pannonian Sea - reconstructed and in high-resolution
(in English) Ancient Croatia Historical oceans History of Transylvania Miocene Europe Natural history of Europe Neogene paleogeography Pannonian Plain Pliocene Europe Prehistoric Europe Prehistoric Hungary Prehistoric Serbia Prehistory of Vojvodina Paleontology in Serbia

See also

References

External links