Mountains In Hungary Research Articles

Tectonic rotations south of the Bohemian Massif from palaeomagnetic directions of Permian red beds in Hungary

Palaeomagnetic studies were carried out in Permian red beds of the Balaton Highlands, the Mecsek Mountains and the Bükk Mountains of Hungary. Statistically well defined directions were obtained from six localities in the Balaton Highlands and two localities in the Mecsek Mountains. No meaningful results were obtained from the Bükk Mountains. Three magnetic components were identified from red beds of the Balaton Highlands: (1) in haematite with a very high unblocking temperature (700°C), interpreted as a Permian magnetization ( D c= 79°, I c=−11°, k = 24, α 95 = 13.6 ° ), in six samples from three beds in a single locality (2) a secondary but ancient component residing mainly inmaghemite ( D = 314°, I = 49°, k = 48, α 95 = 10.0° ), in 84 samples from six localities with a within-locality scatter increasing on unfolding; and (3) a direction parallel to the present field ( D = 7°, I = 62°, k = 46, α 95 = 7.7 ° ), in nine samples from a single locality. For the Balaton Highlands, the component 1 direction agrees with directions obtained from Permian red beds and volcanics in the eastern part of the Southern and Eastern Alps and the Inner West Carpathians. All show large, apparent rotations relative to stable Europe since the Permian. Component 2 is of post-folding (post-Aptian) age. Its direction agrees with known Late Cretaceous directions from the Transdanubian Central Mountains, which also show significant counterclockwise rotation relative to stable Europe. The characteristic magnetization for the Mecsek Mountains resides in haematite and may be primary. The directions indicate only a slight net counterclockwise rotation of the Mecsek Mountains with respect to stable Europe since the Permian.

Tectonic implications of palaeomagnetic results for the Carpatho-Balkan and adjacent areas

Summary From palaeomagnetic results, two different tectonic units can be recognized in the Carpatho-Balkan region and adjacent areas. The north-western unit comprises the Italian peninsula south of the Po-basin, Sardinia, the Istria peninsula of Yugoslavia, the Transdanubian Central Mountains and the Bükk Mountains in Hungary and the outer and inner West Carpathians of Czechoslovakia. The palaeomagnetic results suggest that this unit was part of the African plate in the Mesozoic and Palaeogene, but was later decoupled from Africa. The south-eastern unit is not very well defined palaeomagnetically. Palaeopoles are known from the Mecsek and Villány Mountains in Hungary, and the Papuk Mountains of Yugoslavia and North-West Bulgaria. They are similar to the poles of the same age from stable Europe but do not yet provide a coherent pattern. The palaeomagnetic results to date clearly testify to a different rotational history of this unit from the history of the African plate and the north-western unit, but more extensive palaeomagnetic studies especially on post-Palaeozoic rocks are needed to reveal the details of the movement history.

Observations on the Technique of Production of Szeletian Flint Implements

It is widely accepted by specialists in the Old Stone Age that the Szeletian culture in Hungary developed directly from the local Mousterian. Apart from the chronological evidence, this theory is based on a few bifacially worked Mousterian implements. It is not without interest to investigate this supposed process of evolution also from the point of view of the technique of implement-making. The problem is to decide whether the retouch of the Early Szeletian implements found in the Bükk Mountains in Hungary could have evolved from the Mousterian retouch, which comes down to the question of their mutual relationship considered from the point of view of process of manufacture. We approached this problem along two lines: (1) we conducted laboratory experiments to clear up certain technological problems of stone implement flaking; and (2) we measured the angle between the retouch and the flat bulbar face of the implements from finds of various Palaeolithic cultures in Hungary.In the course of our experiments we constructed a device that precisely measured the force and the direction of the blow applied in flaking. This proved that a blow striking a tabular flint with parallel faces or a thick glass plate vertically, produces a conic crack with included angle of about 100° to 110°. With flint-like materials, used in the making of Old Stone Age implements, this cone can be considered as more or less constant. Our experiments confirmed Leakey's observation according to which the cone produced when striking the edge of a piece of flint is incomplete, i.e., part of it may be supposed to continue beyond the flake. We set ourselves the task of establishing the relationship between the angle of the fracture of the real cone resulting from the blow administered and the angle of the direction of the blow.

Determination of Radioactive Content of Rocks by Means of Geiger-Müller Counters

During a survey of the Velence Mountains in Hungary the authors developed a direct approximating method for use in determining the radioactive content of rocks by means of a Geiger-Mueller counter. The calibration method used is outlined and the calibration obtained can be expressed by the following approximate numerical formula: c = 2.4 . 10/sup -5/ J/LD, where c is the concentration in g-Th-equivalents/g of rock; J, the counting rate (in min); L the length; and D the diameter (in cm) of the brass cathode of the counter tube. Similarly the concentration in g-U-equivalents/g of rock can be expressed by the approximate numerical formula: c = 1.4 . 10/sup -5/ J/LD. The use of the following roughly approximating simple rule may be suggested for uranium explorers when extended territories must be surveyed within a short time: if a G-M counter of any commercial dimensions, shielded by 2 mm of lead, is placed against the rock wall and the observed counting rate (minus cosmic radiation) is x times the rate of cosmic radiation for the same counter, then the average U concentration in the rock is x times 25 g U/metric ton (1,000 kg) of rock.