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41-865: The Sumbar is 245 kilometres (152 mi) long and drains a basin of 8,300 square kilometres (3,200 sq mi). It arises in the Kopet Dag mountains in Iran and flows into Turkmenistan. For a long stretch before the Sumbar runs into the Atrek, it is separated from the latter by a range of hills called the Marábeh. The Atrek becomes part of the Turkmenistan-Iran border where the Sumbar flows into it, at 37°59′28″N 55°16′29″E  /  37.99111°N 55.27472°E  / 37.99111; 55.27472 . This article related to

82-600: A river in Turkmenistan is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This article related to a river in Iran is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Kopet Dag The Köpet Dag , Kopet Dagh , or Koppeh Dagh ( Turkmen : Köpetdag ; Persian : کپه‌داغ ), also known as the Turkmen-Khorasan Mountain Range, is a mountain range on the border between Turkmenistan and Iran that extends about 650 kilometres (400 mi) along

123-796: A smaller portion of Jurassic rocks in the southeastern parts. The mountains were formed in the Miocene and the Pliocene during the Alpine orogeny . As the Tethys Sea was closed and the Arabian plate collided with the Iranian plate and was pushed against it and with the clockwise movement of the Eurasian plate towards the Iranian plate and their final collision, the Iranian plate

164-674: Is what is thought to have allowed for upwelling in the Arabian Sea and led to the establishment of the modern South Asian Monsoon . It also caused major modifications to the functioning of the AMOC and ACC . During the Oligocene (33.9 to 23 Mya), large parts of central and eastern Europe were covered by a northern branch of the Tethys Ocean, called the Paratethys . The Paratethys was separated from

205-515: The Gorgan Plain in Iran. At Jeitun (or Djeitun), mud brick houses were first occupied c. 6000 BC (see BMAC origins ). Also the foothills of the Kopet-Dag near Ashgabat are the site of the remains of the ancient Parthian city of Nisa (Nessa, Nusaý). This mountain range has a ski resort , officially opened by the former president of Turkmenistan, Saparmurat Niyazov . Despite the lack of snow in

246-504: The Paratethys when the Alpine front was still 100 km (62 mi) farther south. In 1885, the Austrian palaeontologist Melchior Neumayr deduced the existence of the Tethys Ocean from Mesozoic marine sediments and their distribution, calling his concept Zentrales Mittelmeer ( lit.   ' Central Mediterranean Sea ' ) and described it as a Jurassic seaway, which extended from

287-733: The Rheic Ocean , which existed to the west of them in the Silurian Period. To the north of the Tethys, the then-land mass is called Angaraland and to the south of it, it is called Gondwanaland . From the Ediacaran (600  Mya ) into the Devonian (360 Mya ), the Proto-Tethys Ocean existed and was situated between Baltica and Laurentia to the north and Gondwana to the south. From

328-783: The Silurian (440 Mya ) through the Jurassic periods, the Paleo-Tethys Ocean existed between the Hunic terranes and Gondwana. Over a period of 400 million years, continental terranes intermittently separated from Gondwana in the Southern Hemisphere to migrate northward to form Asia in the Northern Hemisphere. About 250 Mya, during the Triassic , a new ocean began forming in

369-689: The Tethys Sea or the Neo-Tethys , was a prehistoric ocean during much of the Mesozoic Era and early-mid Cenozoic Era . It was the predecessor to the modern Indian Ocean , the Mediterranean Sea , and the Eurasian inland marine basins (primarily represented today by the Black Sea and Caspian Sea ). During the early Mesozoic, as Pangaea broke up, the Tethys Ocean was defined as the ocean located between

410-484: The 1960s, "fixist" geologists, however, regarded Tethys as a composite trough, which evolved through a series of orogenic cycles. They used the terms 'Paleotethys', 'Mesotethys', and 'Neotethys' for the Caledonian , Variscan , and Alpine orogenies, respectively. In the 1970s and 1980s, these terms and 'Proto-Tethys', were used in different senses by various authors, but the concept of a single ocean wedging into Pangea from

451-829: The Aralo-Caspian Formation extending from close to the Danube delta across Crimea, up the east side of the Volga river to Samara, then south of the Urals to beyond the Aral Sea. Brackish and upper freshwater components (OSM) of the Miocene are now known to extend through the North Alpine foreland basin and onto the Swabian Jura with thickness of up to 250 m (820 ft); these were deposited in

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492-726: The Caribbean to the Himalayas. In 1893, the Austrian geologist Eduard Suess proposed the hypothesis that an ancient and extinct inland sea had once existed between Laurasia and the continents which formed Gondwana II. He named it the Tethys Sea after the Greek sea goddess Tethys. He provided evidence for his theory using fossil records from the Alps and Africa. He proposed the concept of Tethys in his four-volume work Das Antlitz der Erde ( The Face of

533-473: The Earth ). In the following decades during the 20th century, " mobilist " geologists such as Uhlig (1911), Diener (1925), and Daque (1926) regarded Tethys as a large trough between two supercontinents which lasted from the late Palaeozoic until continental fragments derived from Gondwana obliterated it. After World War II , Tethys was described as a triangular ocean with a wide eastern end. From 1920s to

574-574: The Eurasian plate, which created new borders to the ocean, a land barrier to the flow of currents between the Indian and Mediterranean basins, and the orogenies of the Alpide belt (including the Alps , Himalayas , Zagros , and Caucasus Mountains ). All of these geological events, in addition to a drop in sea level rise from Antarctic glaciation, brought an end to the Tethys as it previously existed, fragmenting it into

615-849: The Indian Ocean, the Mediterranean Sea, and the Paratethys . It was preceded by the Paleo-Tethys Ocean , which lasted between the Cambrian and the Early Triassic , while the Neotethys formed during the Late Triassic and lasted in some form up to the Oligocene – Miocene boundary (about 24–21 million years ago) when it completely closed. A portion known as the Paratethys was isolated during

656-862: The Kopet Dag mountains, Niyazov was determined to build a major resort there. The woodlands of the region are home to many fruit trees, shrubs, and vines that have proved valuable for human use and selective breeding , including pomegranate ( Punica granatum ), wild grapes Vitis sylvestris , fig ( Ficus carica ), wild apple ( Malus turkmenorum ), wild pear ( Pyrus boissieriana ), wild cherries ( Prunus spp. , also called Cerasus microcarpa, C. erythrocarpa, C. blinovskii ), wild prune ( Prunus divaricata ), almonds ( Amygdalus communis = Prunus dulcis , and A. scoparia = Prunus scoparia ), and hawthorns ( Crataegus spp. ). Tethys Sea The Tethys Ocean ( / ˈ t iː θ ɪ s , ˈ t ɛ -/ TEETH -iss, TETH - ; Greek : Τηθύς Tēthús ), also called

697-601: The Kopetdag do not know the name Kopetdag...Vambery conjectures that the word kopet is derived from the words kubbet , kuppe (perhaps a lot — S.A.)...Pomerantsev also interprets the name as "multi-mountain" (mountain range), while the locals consider it part of the mythical Cape Mountain in Kopet, but these interpretations are incorrect. Geologically, the Kopet Dag Range is made chiefly of Lower Cretaceous sedimentary rocks with

738-631: The Oligocene (34 million years ago) and lasted up to the Pliocene (about 5 million years ago), when it largely dried out. The modern inland seas of Europe and Western Asia, namely the Black Sea and Caspian Sea, are remnants of the Paratethys Sea. The sea is named after Tethys , who, in ancient Greek mythology, is a water goddess, a sister and consort of Oceanus , mother of the Oceanid sea nymphs and of

779-537: The Paleo-Tethys formerly rested. During the Jurassic period about 150 Mya, Cimmeria finally collided with Laurasia and stalled, so the ocean floor behind it buckled under , forming the Tethys Trench . Water levels rose, and the western Tethys shallowly covered significant portions of Europe, forming the first Tethys Sea. Around the same time, Laurasia and Gondwana began drifting apart , opening an extension of

820-506: The Richter scale have been recorded. The most western foothills of the Kopetdag mountains are known as the 'Kürendag Ridge'. There is archaeological evidence of settlement in the well-watered northern foothills of the Kopet Dag during the Neolithic period. This region is dotted with the multi-period hallmarks characteristic of the ancient Near East, similar to those southwest of the Kopet Dag in

861-612: The Tethys Sea between them which today is the part of the Atlantic Ocean between the Mediterranean and the Caribbean . As North and South America were still attached to the rest of Laurasia and Gondwana, respectively, the Tethys Ocean in its widest extension was part of a continuous oceanic belt running around the Earth between about latitude 30°N and the Equator . Thus, ocean currents at

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902-532: The Tethys were eventually closed off in what is now the Middle East during the Miocene , as a consequence of the northern migration of Africa/Arabia and global sea levels falling due to the concurrent formation of the Antarctic Ice Sheet . This decoupling occurred in two steps, first around 20 Mya and another around 14 Mya. The complete closure of the Tethys led to a global reorganization of currents, and

943-564: The Tethys with the Arctic Ocean . As theories have improved, scientists have extended the "Tethys" name to refer to three similar oceans that preceded it, separating the continental terranes: in Asia, the Paleo-Tethys (Devonian–Triassic), Meso-Tethys (late Early Permian –Late Cretaceous), and Ceno-Tethys (Late-Triassic–Cenozoic) are recognized. None of the Tethys oceans should be confused with

984-417: The Tethys with the formation of the Alps, Carpathians , Dinarides , Taurus , and Elburz mountains during the Alpine orogeny . During the late Miocene , the Paratethys gradually disappeared, and became an isolated inland sea. Separation from the wider Tethys during the early Miocene initially led to a boost in primary productivity for the Paratethys, but this gave way to a total ecosystem collapse during

1025-472: The ancient continents of Gondwana and Laurasia . After the opening of the Indian and Atlantic oceans during the Cretaceous Period and the breakup of these continents over the same period, it came to be defined as the ocean bordered by the continents of Africa, Eurasia, India, and Australasia. During the early-mid Cenozoic, the Indian, African, Australian and Arabian plates moved north and collided with

1066-670: The border southeast of the Caspian Sea , stretching northwest-southeast from near the Caspian Sea in the northwest to the Harirud River in the southeast. In the southwest it borders on the parallel eastern endings of the Alborz mountains being together part of the much larger Alpide belt . The highest peak of the range in Turkmenistan is the Mount Rizeh (Kuh-e Rizeh), located at the southwest of

1107-546: The capital Ashgabat and stands at 2,940 metres (9,646 ft). The highest Iranian summit is Mount Quchan (Kuh-e Quchan) at 3,191 metres (10,469 ft). Vambery conjectured that köpet originates from the Turkmen language where "köp" means "a lot" or "many" and the word "dag" means "mountain" or "peak". He thus translated Köpetdag as "Many mountains (peaks)". He and others noted that in Persian koppeh means "pile" or "heap", and

1148-768: The early Cenozoic, the Tethys Ocean could be divided into three sections: the Mediterranean Tethys (the direct predecessor to the Mediterranean Sea), the Peri-Tethys (a vast inland sea that covered much of eastern Europe and central Asia, and the direct predecessor to the Paratethys Sea), and the Indian Tethys (the direct predecessor to the Indian Ocean). The Turgai Strait extended out of the Peri-Tethys, connecting

1189-411: The historic æra, a vast region of Europe and Asia was covered by a Mediterranean Sea of brackish water, of which the present Caspian is the diminished type. ... To render the distinction between these accumulations and all others clear and unambiguous, we have adopted the term Aralo-Caspian, first applied in a geographical sense, by our great precursor Humboldt, to this region of the globe. ... Judging from

1230-412: The late Miocene as a result of rapid dissolution of carbonate . In Chapter 13 of his 1845 book, Roderick Murchison described a distinctive formation extending from the Black Sea to the Aral Sea in which the creatures differed from those of the purely marine period that preceded them. The Miocene deposits of Crimea and Taman (south of the Sea of Azov ) are identical with formations surrounding

1271-406: The masses of water now separated from each other, from the Aral to the Black Sea inclusive, were formerly united in this vast pre-historical Mediterranean ; which (even if we restrict its limits to the boundaries we already know, and do not extend them eastward, amid low regions untrodden by geologists) must have exceeded in size the present Mediterranean! On the accompanying map, Murchison shows

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1312-404: The most part, it was very dangerous to cross, because of the wind and the cold. That is why the Persians call the mountain range "bad mountain" and the Turkmens call it "God bless you". In the second half of the last century, Russian scholars who studied in the Kopetdag passed the name onto maps as the name of the entire range and spread it to the public. Many of the elders living in the foothills of

1353-434: The present Caspian Sea , in which the univalves of freshwater origin are associated with forms of Cardiacae and Mytili that are common to partially saline or brackish waters. This distinctive fauna has been found throughout all the enormously developed Tertiary formations of the southern and south-eastern steppes. ... and leads at once to the conviction, that during long periods antecedent, as will be hereafter explained, to

1394-422: The recital of travellers and from specimens of the rock, we have no doubt that it extended to Khivah and the Aral Sea ; beyond which the low level of the adjacent eastern deserts would lead us to infer, that it spread over wide tracts in Asia now inhabited by the Turkomans and Kirghis , and was bounded only by the mountains of the Hindoo Kusk and Chinese Tartary . ... there can be no sort of doubt, that all

1435-419: The southern end of the Paleo-Tethys Ocean. A rift formed along the northern continental shelf of Southern Pangaea (Gondwana). Over the next 60 million years, that piece of shelf, known as Cimmeria , traveled north, pushing the floor of the Paleo-Tethys Ocean under the eastern end of northern Pangaea (early / proto- Laurasia ). The Neo-Tethys Ocean formed between Cimmeria and Gondwana, directly over where

1476-422: The time around the Early Cretaceous ran very differently from the way they do today. Between the Jurassic and the Late Cretaceous , which started about 100 Mya, Gondwana began breaking up, pushing Africa and India north across the Tethys and opening up the Indian Ocean. Throughout the Cenozoic (66 million to the dawn of the Neogene, 23 Mya), the connections between the Atlantic and Indian Oceans across

1517-471: The word dag or dagh means "mountain" in Turkic. Thus, a second conjecture held that the Persian version of Kopet Dagh or Koppeh Dagh could be defined as "the mountain that is piled or heaped" and therefore the words could mean "piled or hilly mountains" or "low hills" in general. Ataniyazov, however, rejects those hypotheses: The word kopet is probably derived from the Persian word kuhibet ( kuh - "dag", bet - "bad") and means "bad mountain". No name

1558-435: The world's great rivers, lakes and fountains. The eastern part of the Tethys Ocean is sometimes referred to as Eastern Tethys. The western part of the Tethys Ocean is called Tethys Sea, Western Tethys Ocean, or Paratethys or Alpine Tethys Ocean. The Black , Caspian , and Aral seas are thought to be its crustal remains, though the Black Sea may, in fact, be a remnant of the older Paleo-Tethys Ocean . The Western Tethys

1599-418: Was given to the entirety of this range, but a name was given to each part of it...According to Murzayev, the section of this mountain range west of Ashgabat was called Kopetdag (Murzayev. SA, p. 248). The most common name for this part of the range was Taňrigargan ("God bless you")...the Persians called it Kupet ...(in Persian this name is wah, i.e., it is spelled with a long drawn-out Ku: pet and Ku: bet). For

1640-424: Was not simply a single open ocean. It covered many small plates, Cretaceous island arcs , and microcontinents . Many small oceanic basins ( Valais Ocean , Piemont-Liguria Ocean , Meliata Ocean ) were separated from each other by continental terranes on the Alboran , Iberian , and Apulian plates. The high sea level in the Mesozoic flooded most of these continental domains, forming shallow seas. During

1681-447: Was pressed against the Turan Platform. This collision folded the entire rocks that had been deposited in this geosyncline or basin from the Jurassic to the Miocene and formed the Kopet Dag Mountains. The Kopet Dag Range is a region characterized by foothills, dry and sandy slopes, mountain plateaus, and steep ravines. The Kopet Dag is undergoing tectonic transformation, and is subject to severe earthquakes. Earthquakes exceeding seven on

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