Pannonian Sea
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The Pannonian Sea (also known as Paratethys) was a shallow ancient sea located in the area today known as the Pannonian Plain in Central Europe. The Pannonian Sea reached its greatest extent[verification needed] during the Pliocene, when three to four kilometres of sediments were deposited.
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[edit] History
The Pannonian Sea was formed during the transition between the Oligocene and the Miocene Epochs. It was connected with the Tethys Sea (the two seas were connected through the territory of modern Rona Gulf, Bavaria and Vienna Basin). During the Miocene Epoch, the connection between two seas was interrupted, as the Tethys Sea slowly disappeared under today's western Asia.
Through the Đerdap Strait, the Pannonian Sea was connected to another sea located in Wallachian-Pontic Basin. During its largest sea level, the Pannonian Sea reached the south of modern Serbia: a gulf of the Pannonian Sea located in modern Morava river valley stretched to modern Grdelica Gulch and Vranje Depression and was connected to the Aegean Sea through the modern Preševo Valley.
The Pannonian Sea existed for about 30 million years. Its last remains disappered in the middle of Pleistocene Epoch, about 600,000 years ago - long after the Tethys Sea proper had ceased to exist. The water of the Pannonian Sea actually ruptured its way through the modern Đerdap Gorge on the Danube river and flowed through the gorge leaving behind a large plain known as the Pannonian Plain. The remnants of the former islands of the Pannonian Sea are modern Pannonian Island Mountains (Fruška Gora and Vršac Mountains).
[edit] Pannonian Sea in modern culture
The Pannonian Sea was a subject of the popular song "Panonski mornar" ("Pannonian sailor") of the Serbian singer Đorđe Balašević. [1]
[edit] References
- Dragan Rodić, Geografija za I ili III razred srednje škole, Zavod za udžbenike i nastavna sredstva, Beograd, 1995.
