Považský Inovec 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 western

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 ...

, named after the

Váh The Váh (; , ; ; Wag
w Słowniku geograficznym Królestwa Polskiego i innych krajów słowiańskich (''in Geograph ...

river. It is long and wide mountain range. It is situated from the city of

Hlohovec Hlohovec (, Hungarian ''Galgóc''), is a town in southwestern Slovakia, with a population of 21,508. Name The name comes from ''*Glogovec'', the Old Slavic name for a place densely overgrown by hawthorn. The Hungarian form ''Galgóc'' was ado ...

, raising from the Danubian Hills, and slowly raising further north until nearly to the city of

Trenčín Trenčín (, also known by other #Names and etymology, alternative names) is a List of towns in Slovakia, city in western Slovakia of the central Váh River valley near the Czech Republic, Czech border, around from Bratislava. It has a populati ...

where it borders the

Strážov Mountains The Strážov Mountains (, ) are a mountain range in northwestern Slovakia, being part of Inner Western Carpathians, and of the Fatra-Tatra Area. They are situated between the towns of Trenčín, Považská Bystrica, Rajec, Prievidza and Bánovce ...

, where is also the highest hill of the entire mountain range, ''Inovec'' (1042 m). The mountain range separates basins of the Váh and

Nitra Nitra (; also known by other #Etymology, alternative names) is a city in western Slovakia, situated at the foot of Zobor Mountain in the valley of the river Nitra (river), Nitra. It is located 95 km east of Bratislava. With a population of ...

rivers. There are many monuments in or near the mountain range, including

Great Moravia Great Moravia (; , ''Meghálī Moravía''; ; ; , ), or simply Moravia, was the first major state that was predominantly West Slavic to emerge in the area of Central Europe, possibly including territories which are today part of the Czech Repub ...

hill fort A hillfort is a type of fortification, fortified refuge or defended settlement located to exploit a rise in elevation for defensive advantage. They are typical of the late Bronze Age Europe, European Bronze Age and Iron Age Europe, Iron Age. So ...

''Kostolec'' near

Ducové Ducové () is a municipality (village) situated in western Slovakia, near the spa town of Piešťany. It was part of the municipality Moravany nad Váhom from 1976 to 1992. The village lies under the Váh Inovec. According to the 2011 census, the ...

, Hlohovec Castle near Hlohovec, Beckov Castle near

Beckov Beckov (, ) is a village and municipality in the Nové Mesto nad Váhom District in the Trenčín Region of western Slovakia. History In historical records the village was first mentioned in 1208. ''Mihály de genere Bána'', royal equerry, who ...

, Topoľčany Castle and Tematín Castle. The famous spa city of

Piešťany Piešťany (; , , , ) is a town in Slovakia. It is located in the western part of the country within the Trnava Region and is the seat of its Piešťany District, own district. It is the biggest and best known spa town in Slovakia and has around ...

lies under Považský Inovec.

Geology

Považský Inovec Mts. is considered as asymmetric horst emerging from the Neogene sedimentary fill of 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 ...

between the

Váh The Váh (; , ; ; Wag
w Słowniku geograficznym Królestwa Polskiego i innych krajów słowiańskich (''in Geograph ...

and

rivers. The horst is bordered by steep

normal fault In geology, a fault is a planar fracture or discontinuity in a volume of rock across which there has been significant displacement as a result of rock-mass movements. Large faults within Earth's crust result from the action of plate tectonic ...

s and usually divided from north to south into three segments (or blocks). Basement rocks are in the northern portion dominated by crystalline schists (mostly diaphthorites, phyllonites, biotite micaschists and

gneiss Gneiss (pronounced ) is a common and widely distributed type of metamorphic rock. It is formed by high-temperature and high-pressure metamorphic processes acting on formations composed of igneous or sedimentary rocks. This rock is formed under p ...

es,

amphibolite Amphibolite () is a metamorphic rock that contains amphibole, especially hornblende and actinolite, as well as plagioclase feldspar, but with little or no quartz. It is typically dark-colored and dense, with a weakly foliated or schistose ...

s and

migmatite Migmatite is a composite rock (geology), rock found in medium and high-grade metamorphic environments, commonly within Precambrian craton, cratonic blocks. It consists of two or more constituents often layered repetitively: one layer is an old ...

s). Extensive Late Paleozoic volcanosedimentary succession ( Kálnica group) is present in the cover unit, in the area between the Selec and Hrádok villages. Sparse relicts of peculiar

Upper Cretaceous The Late Cretaceous (100.5–66 Ma) is the more recent of two epochs into which the Cretaceous Period is divided in the geologic time scale. Rock strata from this epoch form the Upper Cretaceous Series. The Cretaceous is named after ''cret ...

sediments ( Belice unit) are locally present in the northern and southern block. The transversal Hrádok reverse fault separates the northern block from the central block. Only the central block shows typical structure of the Fatra-Tatra Belt which is typical composed of Tatric crystalline basement composed of granitoids and gneisses, covered by the Mesozoic deposits and two superimposed cover nappes (lower Fatric unit and upper Hronic unit).

Granitoid A granitoid is a broad term referring to a diverse group of coarse-grained igneous rocks that are widely distributed across the globe, covering a significant portion of the Earth's exposed surface and constituting a large part of the continental ...

rocks form the Bojná and the Zlatníky massifs. The Fatric nappe is represented by the Zliechov succession. The Hronic nappe is preserved in outlayers, e.g. in the

Tematín Tematín Castle is a castle ruin in western Slovakia. History The castle was originally built in the second half of the 13th century in the Kingdom of Hungary. It was completely reconstructed by the Thurzó family, owners of the castle from 1524 ...

or Beckov Castle rocks. Both cover nappes are composed of the

Triassic The Triassic ( ; sometimes symbolized 🝈) is a geologic period and system which spans 50.5 million years from the end of the Permian Period 251.902 million years ago ( Mya), to the beginning of the Jurassic Period 201.4 Mya. The Triassic is t ...

Early Cretaceous The Early Cretaceous (geochronology, geochronological name) or the Lower Cretaceous (chronostratigraphy, chronostratigraphic name) is the earlier or lower of the two major divisions of the Cretaceous. It is usually considered to stretch from 143.1 ...

rocks, mostly

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) ...

marlstone Marl is an earthy material rich in carbonate minerals, clays, and silt. When hardened into rock, this becomes marlstone. It is formed in marine or freshwater environments, often through the activities of algae. Marl makes up the lower part ...

s and dolomites. Relicts of the clastic deposits of Inner-Carpathian Paleogene Basin are found on the western slopes of the mountains.

Paleontology

The Čertova pec caves near Radošina have yielded relics of multiple human habitation from the

Stone Age The Stone Age was a broad prehistory, prehistoric period during which Rock (geology), stone was widely used to make stone tools with an edge, a point, or a percussion surface. The period lasted for roughly 3.4 million years and ended b ...

. Finds include artifacts from the

Mousterian The Mousterian (or Mode III) is an Industry (archaeology), archaeological industry of Lithic technology, stone tools, associated primarily with the Neanderthals in Europe, and with the earliest anatomically modern humans in North Africa and We ...

culture (associated primarily with

Neanderthals Neanderthals ( ; ''Homo neanderthalensis'' or sometimes ''H. sapiens neanderthalensis'') are an extinction, extinct group of archaic humans who inhabited Europe and Western and Central Asia during the Middle Pleistocene, Middle to Late Plei ...

) and the later

Szeletian The Szeleta Culture is a transitional archaeological culture between the Middle Paleolithic and the Upper Palaeolithic, found in Austria, Moravia, northern Hungary, and southern Poland. It is dated to 44,000 to 40,000 years ago, a period when both ...

culture.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Povazsky Inovec Mountain ranges of Slovakia Mountain ranges of the Western Carpathians