Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 May 2009
Mantle diapirism centred in Transylvania is suggested as the explanation of the Carpathian Arc and the Pannonian Depression, deviation of the Danube from a formerly straight course, and the trends of the Eastern Alps and horsts and troughs in the Bohemian Massif and Poland. Central location in Transylvania is at the crossing-point of deep fractures, parts of great circles, most conspicuously displayed in Transcaucasia and along the Zagros Main Thrust line. Mantle diapirism extended westward from Transylvania along each lineament in Hungary. Pannonian deep lithosphere may be a subcrustally thinned extension of the Bohemian Massif, with a relict unthinned fragment appearing as the Dobrogean Massif. This extended massif would originally have lain almost parallel to the western boundary of the Russian Platform and to the present Dinaride belt.