Tatra Mountains

Panorama of Tatra Mountains
Panorama of Tatra Mountains from Hala Długa in Gorce National Park
Panorama of Tatras (from Poland)
Czarny Staw (Black Pond) in the High Tatras
Raised-relief map of the High Tatras
Tichá dolina in Slovakia
Tatry Hala Gasienicowa.jpg
Morskie Oko
Kominiarski Wierch in Western Tatras
Bystrá, Blyšť and Liliowe Turnie

The Tatra Mountains, Tatras or Tatra (Tatry in both Polish and Slovak), constitute a mountain range which forms a natural border between Slovakia and Poland. They occupy an area of 750 km², the major part (600 km²) of which lies in Slovakia. The highest mountain is Gerlach at 2,655 m, located in Slovakia just north of Poprad. The north-western peak of Rysy (2,499 m) is the highest Polish mountain.

The Tatras consist of:

The Tatra Mountains are the highest mountain range in the Carpathian Mountains. Although considerably smaller than the Alps, they are classified as having an alpine landscape. Their high mountain character, combined with great accessibility, makes them popular with tourists and scientists.

Contents

Description

The area is a well-known winter sports area, with resorts such as Zakopane, the "Winter Capital" of Poland, Poprad and the town (Mesto) Vysoké Tatry in Slovakia (in English literally (Town of the High Tatras); created in 1999 and including the former separate resorts Štrbské Pleso, Starý Smokovec, and Tatranská Lomnica), and The High Tatras, with their 24 (or 25) peaks over 2500 m above sea level, are, together with the Southern Carpathians, the only mountain ranges with an Alpine character in the whole 1200 km length of the Carpathian Mountain range.

Štrbské Pleso in the High Tatras, Slovakia
Hala Gąsienicowa in Poland
Kotlina Piatich Spišskych plies in Slovakia

The Tatras should be distinguished from another Slovak mountain range, the Low Tatras (in Slovak Nízke Tatry), situated south of the Tatras. Sometimes, however, the term 'Tatras' is used freely to refer to both the Tatras and the Low Tatras.

Landscape

The Tatra Mountains (especially the High Tatras) are known to have undergone four glaciations. The most extensive transformations were caused by a glacier 100–230 m thick; the most apparent features of this process are the numerous cirques and mountain lakes. The mountains were shaped by glacial erosion, which formed many alpine cliffs, some up to 1,000 m high.

Climate

The Mountains lie in the temperate zone of Central Europe. They are an important barrier to the movements of air masses. Their mountainous topography causes the most diverse climate in that region.

The effects of global warming in the Tatra Mountains started to be visible around the 1980s.

Winds

The average wind speed on the summits is 6 m/s.

Temperature

Temperatures range from −40 °C in the winter to 33 °C in warmer months. Temperatures also vary depending on altitude and sun exposure of a given slope. Temperatures below 0 °C last for 192 days on the summits.

Precipitation

Highest precipitation figures are recorded on northern slopes. In June and July monthly precipitation reaches around 250 mm (10 in). Precipitation occurs for 215 to 228 days a year. Thunderstorms occur 36 days a year on average.

Snow cover

Maximum thickness on the summit amounts to around 320 cm (125 in) in March. Peaks are sometimes covered with snow throughout the year. Avalanches are frequent.

Flora

Delphinium oxysepalum from the genus Delphinium near Tatranská Lomnica

The Mountains have a diverse variety of plants. They are home to more than 1,000 species of vascular plants, about 450 mosses, 200 liverworts, 700 lichens, 900 fungi, and 70 slime moulds. There are five climatic-vegetation belts in the Tatras:

The distribution of plants depends on altitude:

Fauna

Tatra chamois, Rupicapra rupicapra tatrica

The Tatra Mountains are home to many species of animals: 54 tardigrades, 22 turbellarians, 100 rotifers, 22 copepods, 162 spiders, 81 molluscs, 43 mammals, 200 birds, 7 amphibians and 2 reptiles.

The most notable mammals are the Tatra chamois, marmot, snow vole, brown bear, wolf, Eurasian lynx, red deer, roe deer, and wild boar. Notable fish include the brook trout and alpine bullhead.

The endemic arthropod species include a caddis fly, spider Xysticus alpicola and a springtail.

Human involvement

Visible consequences of the 2004 storm

The Tatra Mountains were used in the 18th and 19th centuries for sheep grazing and mining and many trees were cut down to make way for human exploitation. Although these activities were stopped, the impact is still clearly visible. Moreover, there are new problems. Pollution from the industrialized regions of Kraków, Ostrava and Orava and uncontrolled tourism are damaging the mountains.

The Slovak Tatra National Park (Tatranský národný park; TANAP) was founded in 1949, and the contiguous Polish Tatra National Park (Tatrzański Park Narodowy) was founded in 1954. Both areas were added to the UNESCO Biosphere Reserve list in 1993.

On 19 November 2004, large parts of the forests in the southern part of the High Tatras were damaged by a strong wind storm. Three million cubic metres of trees were uprooted, two people died and several villages were totally cut off. Further damage was done by a subsequent forest fire, and it will take many years until the local ecology is fully recovered.

The 2006 Bollywood film, Fanaa, starring Aamer Khan and Kajol was shot here, with the location depicting Kashmir in the film. Considering the insurgency in Kashmir, and the similarity of the terrain with Kashmir, it was considered wiser, easier and better to shoot in the Polish part of the Tatra mountains, in Zakopane, than in Kashmir.

Mountain peaks

Batizovský štít above the Batizovské pleso lake

Eastern Tatras

Peaks of Western Tatras

Western Tatras

Notable people

Ludwig Greiner identified Gerlachovský Peak as the summit of the Tatras, Carpathians.

Bibliography

Ján Lacika, Tatras (2nd edition), Bratislava 2006. ISBN 80-88975-95-6.

Colin Saunders and Renáta Nárožná, "Walking in the High Tatras" (2nd edition), Cicerone Press (Milnthorpe) 2006. ISBN 9781852844820.

External links

Commercial tourism-oriented websites

Mountaineering

Photography

Films