The reliefs of Lesser Poland, the Lublinese, the Roztocze, the Volhynian hills, the Podolia plateau, all together form a precarpatic area about 200 km wide, which in various ways constitutes the most important part of Poland. Region of ancient population, densely inhabited, with fertile soils, with mineral riches, with large textile and metallurgical industries, with ancient cities, cultural and commercial centers of the first order, such as Krakow, the ancient capital, and Lviv, it possesses in fact all that can be valid for a modern state.
A furrow, crossed by the high course of the Vistula, San and Dnestr rivers, separates the mountainous region of the Carpathians from this pre-Carpathian belt. The section of this included in the Polish territory extends for 500 km. from the Porta Morava (the wide furrow that opens between the Sudetenland and the Carpathians themselves) to the sources of the Czeremosz tributary of the Prut, and is formed by the external area of the folds, consisting of sandstones and clayey schists (the so-called flysch); only for a short distance does the border reach, in the Tatras, the crystalline nuclei, which in Polish territory rise to 2499 m. (Rysy). The backbone of the Tatras is given precisely by a central granite-gneissic nucleus, which the hilly area of Podhale, which extends to N., separates from a subtatric area representing the carriageway, operated from S. to N., of the sedimentations calcareous-arenaceous that once covered the whole massif. The morphology of the Tatras in general lines is to be placed in relation with the glacial modeling of the Pleistocene expansion, which, moreover, preserved rather than destroyed the original forms, since glacial erosion was less effective than the fluvial one., so much so that the influence of glaciers on the topography could be disputed. But the numerous circuses, occupied by the lakes, opening on each side of the crests, and the moraine accumulations, have provided evidence that the region has undergone various glacial expansions. According to E. Romer, the limit of permanent snow in the last glaciation fluctuated between 1495 m. (Bystra valley) and 1710 (Bialka valley, where the glaciers have dropped to 914 m.). Currently there are no glaciers on the Tatras, but the Romer has shown that this does not depend on morphological causes, but on the winter distribution of precipitation, which here does not favor the accumulation of snow, as in the Alps. (Bystra valley) and 1710 (Bialka valley, where the glaciers have dropped to 914 m.). Currently there are no glaciers on the Tatras, but the Romer has shown that this does not depend on morphological causes, but on the winter distribution of precipitation, which here does not favor the accumulation of snow, as in the Alps. (Bystra valley) and 1710 (Bialka valley, where the glaciers have dropped to 914 m.). Currently there are no glaciers on the Tatras, but the Romer has shown that this does not depend on morphological causes, but on the winter distribution of precipitation, which here does not favor the accumulation of snow, as in the Alps. For Poland 2015, please check dentistrymyth.com.
In the outer arenaceous-schistose belt of the Carpathian folds, Polish geographers distinguish the Western Beskids and the Eastern Beskids; the limit between them is commonly the Dukla Pass, where the system narrows – between Galicia and the Hungarian Lowlands – to only 150 km. wide, and is lowered to 500 m. The Western Beskids are a maze of rounded cretaceous sandstone ridges, covered by dense coniferous forests up to 1250-1300 m., Which rise on a platform, leveled towards 400 m. and engraved by a dense network of valleys. The greatest height is reached in the Babia Góra (1725 m.), Which shows glacial cirques and moraines. The platform is densely populated, especially where the valleys widen into basins (of Żywiec, of Nowy Sącz, of Jasło), generally with fertile soil.
In the Eastern Beskids the flysch prevails unchallenged and forms various parallel chains, divided into small trunks by longitudinal valleys. Near the Dukla Pass the mountain is reduced to sandstone ridges just 750-800 m. High, but proceeding towards the SE. it gradually rises and becomes more harsh; near the border with Romania the Czarnohora massif exceeds 2000 m. (Howerla, 2058). The disintegration of the sandstone results in the formation of a soil that is not very fertile, but very favorable to forest vegetation: and in fact the Carpathian ranges of the flysch are covered by immense expanses of lush forests.
A SE. of the Jasło basin opens a depression crossed by the Wisloka and the San, tributaries of the densely populated Vistula, because to the agricultural, forestry and livestock resources it adds mineral riches: oil and natural gas. In much greater quantities than in this area, however, oil was found further to the SE. and on the edge of the Carpathian system, around Borysław. It must be remembered that the Polish side of the Carpazî from the sources of the Vistula to those of the Prut and the strip of hills that face it, together with the western part of Podolia, constituted the Austrian province of Galicia until 1918. Even today the region is often referred to by this name (for further information on the Carpazî, see this entry).
