The Poiana Ruscă Mountains (part of the

Western Carpathians The Western Carpathians are a mountain range and geomorphological province that forms the western part of the Carpathian Mountains. The mountain belt stretches from the Low Beskids range of the Eastern Carpathians along the border of Poland wi ...

) are a

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

mountain range in western

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...

. The mountains are situated roughly south of the

Mureș River Mureș may refer to: * Mureș County, Romania * Mureș (river) in Romania and Hungary (''Maros'') * Mureș culture, a Bronze Age culture from Romania See also * Târgu Mureș, the capital of Mureș County * Ocna Mureș Ocna Mureș (; la, Salina ...

, northeast of the

Timiș River Timiș may refer to: *Timiș County, a county in western Romania *Timiș (river), a river in western Romania and Serbia *Ținutul Timiș, a former administrative unit of Romania *Temes County, a former administrative county (comitatus) in the hist ...

, and west of the

Strei River The Strei ( hu, Sztrigy) is a left tributary of the river Mureș in Transylvania, Romania. The upper reach of the river, upstream of the village of Baru, is also known as ''Râul Petros''. It flows through the town Călan and the villages Petr ...

. The Bega River emerges from these mountains. The nearest large towns are

Lugoj Lugoj (; hu, Lugos; german: Lugosch; sr, Лугош, Lugoš; bg, Лугож; tr, Logoş) is a list of cities and towns in Romania, city in Timiș County, Romania. The Timiș River divides the city into two halves, the so-called "Romanian Lugoj" ...

Hunedoara Hunedoara (; german: Eisenmarkt; hu, Vajdahunyad ) is a municipiu, city in Hunedoara County, Transylvania, Romania. It is located in southwestern Transylvania near the Poiana Ruscă Mountains, and administers five villages: Boș (''Bós''), Groș ...

, and

Caransebeș Caransebeș (; german: Karansebesch; hu, Karánsebes, Hungarian pronunciation: ) is a municipiu, city in Caraș-Severin County, part of the Banat region in southwestern Romania. It is located at the confluence of the Timiș (river), River Timiș ...

. The Poiana Ruscă Mountains cover an area of about , having mean altitudes from . The highest summit is the , at .

Mining

The mountains contain resources such as

magnetite Magnetite is a mineral and one of the main iron ores, with the chemical formula Fe2+Fe3+2O4. It is one of the oxides of iron, and is ferrimagnetic; it is attracted to a magnet and can be magnetized to become a permanent magnet itself. With the ...

iron Iron () is a chemical element with symbol Fe (from la, ferrum) and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, right in f ...

thorium Thorium is a weakly radioactive metallic chemical element with the symbol Th and atomic number 90. Thorium is silvery and tarnishes black when it is exposed to air, forming thorium dioxide; it is moderately soft and malleable and has a high me ...

and

lead Lead is a chemical element with the symbol Pb (from the Latin ) and atomic number 82. It is a heavy metal that is denser than most common materials. Lead is soft and malleable, and also has a relatively low melting point. When freshly cu ...

, and as such are the site of many mines. In the nineteenth century, the mountains were also centers of

gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile met ...

silver Silver is a chemical element with the Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ag (from the Latin ', derived from the Proto-Indo-European wikt:Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European/h₂erǵ-, ''h₂erǵ'': "shiny" or "white") and atomic number 47. A soft, whi ...

, and

salt Salt is a mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl), a chemical compound belonging to the larger class of salts; salt in the form of a natural crystalline mineral is known as rock salt or halite. Salt is present in vast quantitie ...

mining and production. However, after 1990 some mines were closed and others abandoned, leaving waste ore and radioactive mines still unprotected in the mountain range.

Divisions of the mountains

* Poiana Ruscă (literally: ''Ruscă Meadows'') * Lipova Plateau (''Podișul Lipovei'') * Bega-Timiș Groove (''Culoarul Bega-Timiș'') * Orăștie Groove (''Culoarul Orăștiei''), including the Hațeg Depression (''Depresiunea Hațegului'')

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Poiana Rusca Mountains Mountain ranges of Romania Mountain ranges of the Western Romanian Carpathians Western Romanian Carpathians