Eastern Carpathians

the most extended central part of the Carpathians in Rumania, the USSR (Ukrainian SSR), Czechoslovakia, and Poland, situated between the Tylicz Pass in the north and the Predeal Pass in the south. Length, approximately 750 km; maximum altitude, 2,305 m (Mt. Pietrosu in the Rodnei Massif).

The Eastern Carpathians are composed for the most part of sand-clay strata of Cretaceous, Paleogene, and partially Neocene ages (flysch); located in the axial zone of the range are Precambrian crystalline schists and quartzites; in the west are massifs of crystalline rock (Rodnei) and volcanic Neocene rock (Harghita C&acaron;limani, and others). These mountains have deposits of manganese ore, zinc, lead, copper, rock salt, and, in the eastern foothills, petroleum and natural gas. The Eastern Carpathians are divided by broad, deep valleys into a number of mountain ranges and massifs (Maramure§ului, Gorgany, Cerna Hora, Beskydy, Rodnei, Calimani, Vrancei, Tirgu, and others). At an altitude of more than 2,000 m there are traces of glaciation. The greater part of these mountains is covered with mixed and coniferous forests (beech, spruce, fir, and pine); in the lower zone are beech forests. The mountain meadows of the upper zone (or poloniny, as they are called locally) are utilized as summer pastures.