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Limestone Klippen Belt—Atypical Landforms in Flysch Uplands

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Landscapes and Landforms of Slovakia

Part of the book series: World Geomorphological Landscapes ((WGLC))

Abstract

The Pieniny Klippen Belt of the Western Carpathians is a peculiar tectonic and geomorphological zone that is only a few km wide, but up to 600 km long. It separates the External Western Carpathians from the Central Western Carpathians. The Pieniny Klippen Belt is exceptional by its picturesque rugged landscape, being formed by numerous, and often isolated cliffy hills called “klippen” surrounded by a smooth relief composing the “klippen mantle”. The majority of klippen is composed of comparatively hard, Middle Jurassic to Lower Cretaceous limestones, surrounded by softer in places Lower Jurassic, but mostly Upper Cretaceous to Middle Eocene shales, marls and flysch deposits. In these geological settings, the selective erosion created a very contrasting mosaic of landforms in a relatively small area. In the Pieniny Mts., it has the form of a mountain range with relatively high rock peaks and deep river gorges. The Middle Ages enriched some klippen with castles, which have been preserved to the present, especially in the form of mysterious ruins. All these attributes make the Pieniny Klippen Belt one of the most valuable and interesting landforms in Slovakia, with significant geotouristic potential.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are thankful for the financial support of the PKB research from the Slovak Research and Development Agency (project APVV-17-0170) and Slovak VEGA Grant Agency (project no. 2/0052/21). We also wish to thank Dr. Ján Lacika for kindly providing the photos and to an anonymous reviewer for the thorough and constructive review.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geology and Palaeontology, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Comenius University, Mlynská dolina, Ilkovičova 6, 842 15, Bratislava, Slovakia

    Dušan Plašienka

  2. Institute of Geography, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Štefánikova 49, 814 73, Bratislava, Slovakia

    Ján Novotný

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  1. Dušan Plašienka
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Correspondence to Dušan Plašienka .

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  1. Department of Physical Geography, Geomorphology and Natural Hazards, Institute of Geography Slovak Academy of Sciences, Bratislava, Slovakia

    Milan Lehotský

  2. Department of Geography, Geoinformatics and Regional Development, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Constantine The Philosopher University in Nitra, Nitra, Slovakia

    Martin Boltižiar

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Plašienka, D., Novotný, J. (2022). Limestone Klippen Belt—Atypical Landforms in Flysch Uplands. In: Lehotský, M., Boltižiar, M. (eds) Landscapes and Landforms of Slovakia. World Geomorphological Landscapes. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-89293-7_10

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