The Pieniny (sometimes also the PieninsSzafer, Władysław. 2013. ''The Vegetation of Poland: International Series of Monographs in Pure and Applied Biology''. Warsaw: Pergamon Press, pp. 156, 388. or the Pienin Mountains,Griffiths, Graham C. D. 1976. Studies on Boreal Agromyzidae (Diptera). XII. ''Phytomyza'' and ''Chromatomyia'' miners on Astereae (Compositae).''Quaestiones Entomologicae'' 12: 239–275, p. 255. ) is a

mountain range A mountain range or hill range is a series of mountains or hills arranged in a line and connected by high ground. A mountain system or mountain belt is a group of mountain ranges with similarity in form, structure, and alignment that have aris ...

in the south of

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

and the north of

Slovakia Slovakia, officially the Slovak Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the west, and the Czech Republic to the northwest. Slovakia's m ...

. It is classified within the eastern section of the Western Beskids. The Pieniny mountain range is divided into three parts – ''Pieniny Spiskie'' () and ''Pieniny Właściwe'' (Slovak: ''Centrálne Pieniny'') in Poland; and, ''Małe Pieniny'' (; ) in Poland and Slovakia. The Pieniny mountains consist mainly of beds of

limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...

and dolomite. The most famous peak, ''

Trzy Korony Trzy Korony (, ) is the Summit (topography), summit of the Three Crowns Massif, an independent portion of a mountain range, range called Pieniny Mountains in the south of Poland. Trzy Korony forms the central part of a compact group of connected m ...

'' (Three Crowns), is 982 metres high. It is also the summit of the Three Crowns

Massif A massif () is a principal mountain mass, such as a compact portion of a mountain range, containing one or more summits (e.g. France's Massif Central). In mountaineering literature, ''massif'' is frequently used to denote the main mass of an ...

. Pieniny's highest peak – ''Wysoka'' (Polish); ''Vysoké Skalky'' (Slovak) – reaches 1,050 metres

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 ...

. Pieniny mountains formed at the bottom of the sea in several geological epochs. They were folded and raised in Upper

Cretaceous The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 143.1 to 66 mya (unit), million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era (geology), Era, as well as the longest. At around 77.1 million years, it is the ...

. At the beginning of the

Paleogene The Paleogene Period ( ; also spelled Palaeogene or Palæogene) is a geologic period and system that spans 43 million years from the end of the Cretaceous Period Ma (million years ago) to the beginning of the Neogene Period Ma. It is the fir ...

geologic period a second wave of tectonic movements took place causing a further shift. The third wave of movements during the

and

Neogene The Neogene ( ,) is a geologic period and system that spans 20.45 million years from the end of the Paleogene Period million years ago ( Mya) to the beginning of the present Quaternary Period million years ago. It is the second period of th ...

resulted in a more complex tectonic structure. At the same time

erosion Erosion is the action of surface processes (such as Surface runoff, water flow or wind) that removes soil, Rock (geology), rock, or dissolved material from one location on the Earth's crust#Crust, Earth's crust and then sediment transport, tran ...

resulted in stripping of the outer mantle rocks and further modeling of terrain. Peaks were built from weather resistant

Jurassic The Jurassic ( ) is a Geological period, geologic period and System (stratigraphy), stratigraphic system that spanned from the end of the Triassic Period million years ago (Mya) to the beginning of the Cretaceous Period, approximately 143.1 Mya. ...

rocks, mainly limestone. Valleys and passes were created from softer and more susceptible to weathering rocks of

and Paleogene periods. Caves are few and rather small. By contrast, rivers and streams are often deeply indented in the rock, creating approximately 15 ravines and gorges. The most famous gorges of the Pieniny mountains are the Dunajec River Gorge in Pieniny National Park and the Homole Ravine (). Hills along the northern border of Pieniny are of

volcanic A volcano is commonly defined as a vent or fissure in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. On Earth, volcanoes are most often fo ...

origin.

Image gallery

Image:Rafting on the Dunajec River.jpg,

and Facimiech Mountain Image:Kiczera a2.jpg, Kiczera and Magura Spiska. View from Wysokie Skały Image:Dunajec a5.jpg,

Dunajec The Dunajec (; Goral dialects: ''Dónajec''; ) is a river running through northeastern Slovakia and southern Poland. It is also regarded as the main river of the Goral Lands. It is a right tributary of the Vistula River. It begins in Nowy Targ at ...

River Image:Niedzica-04(tż).jpg,

Niedzica Castle Niedzica Castle, also known as Dunajec Castle (, , , ), is located in the southernmost part of Poland in Niedzica (Nowy Targ County in Lesser Poland). It was erected between the years 1320 and 1326 by Kokos of Brezovica on the site of an ancient ...

and

Czorsztyn Czorsztyn (German: ''Schorstin'') is a village in Poland, in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, Nowy Targ County. The village lies in Pieniny, the mountain range on the current Polish- Slovak border. It is famous for the ruins of a 14th-17th-century c ...

Lake

References

External links

www.pieniny.sk/en.html

Pieniny Mountains at www.pieniny.us

Pieniny Mountains at info-poland.buffalo.edu

Pieniny at www.travelia.sk
{{Authority control Mountain ranges of Poland Mountain ranges of Slovakia Landforms of Lesser Poland Voivodeship Mountain ranges of the Western Carpathians

Image gallery

See also

References

External links