The Slanské Hills (in Slovak, ''Slanské vrchy'') is a range of mountains in eastern

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 ...

, one segment of the Mátra-Slanec Area of the

Inner Western Carpathians 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 ...

Overview

The area is named after the nearest town in the southern portion, Slanec. The range is approximately long, side, and extends southeast of the city of

Prešov Prešov () is a city in eastern Slovakia. It is the seat of administrative Prešov Region () and Šariš. With a population of approximately 85,000 for the city, and in total more than 100,000 with the urban area, it is the second-largest city i ...

, between the and the

Eastern Slovak Lowland The East(ern) Slovak Lowland ( Slovak: ''Východoslovenská nížina'') is the name of a part of the Great Hungarian Plain (Slovak: ''Veľká dunajská kotlina'') situated in Slovakia. In terms of geomorphology, it forms one unit together with t ...

. The mountains average high, with the highest elevation at , (where 700 healthy, mature

elms The European Le Mans Series (abbreviated as ELMS) is a European sports car racing endurance series inspired by the 24 Hours of Le Mans race and organized by the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO). The European Le Mans Series is similar to the fo ...

were discovered in 1998). The mountains are forested, with several mineral springs, and resources such as gold, silver, and

antimony Antimony is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol Sb () and atomic number 51. A lustrous grey metal or metalloid, it is found in nature mainly as the sulfide mineral stibnite (). Antimony compounds have been known since ancient t ...

. Passes through the mountains include the

Herľany Herľany (; ) is a village and municipality in Košice-okolie District in the Košice Region of eastern Slovakia. Sights The village is known for the only full-scale geyser in Slovakia, one of the few cold water geysers in the world. It erupts pe ...

Pass and Dargov Pass (''Dargovský priesmyk''), site of a significant

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

battle.

Geology and formation

The Slanské Hills are a chain of

andesite Andesite () is a volcanic rock of intermediate composition. In a general sense, it is the intermediate type between silica-poor basalt and silica-rich rhyolite. It is fine-grained (aphanitic) to porphyritic in texture, and is composed predomina ...

volcanoes 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 ...

formed simultaneously with marine deposition during the Neogene geological age (20-11 MYA). Volcanoes in the chain include Makovica and Strechový Vrch. Strechový Vrch was one of the most volcanically active peaks.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Slanske Hills Mountain ranges of Slovakia Mountain ranges of the Western Carpathians