COMPARISON or VIEWS OF SUESS AND KOBER 



233 



tion of the Alps. Furthermore, following Termierj he considers the 

 Betic Cordillera as entirely distinct from the Atlas and probably con- 

 nected with the Pyrenees. Proceeding to the east, he projects the Balkan 

 trend-lines through the structures of Crimea and the Caucasus. Thus 

 the Alpides, as defined by Kober, extend from Gibraltar to the Caspian ; 

 and in all subdivisions of this great system overturning toward the 

 north is pronounced.'^ 



Characteristics of the Mediterranean Eanges 



The Alpides, considered alone, furnish an excellent example of asym- 

 metry in cross-section, corresponding to the conception of Suess. But 

 Kober says this is only half of the picture. A remarkable counterpart 

 of the Alpine unit may be traced through the Atlas, the Apennines, the 

 Dinaric Alps, the structures of Greece and the Grecian Isles, into the 

 mountains of Taurus and Iran. Again we are dealing with a tortuous 

 but practically continuous line of mountains, with structures overturned 



Figure 1. — Schema cler OUederung des alpinen Orogen 

 Kober's figure 26, page 140. 



in the same sense throughout ; in this case southward, away from Europe 

 and the Alps. It is clear that all of these Mediterranean ranges have 

 a close genetic relationship, for they were born of the old sea Tethys 

 during Cretaceous and Tertiary time. Considered together, they out- 

 line a complete orogenetic zone, or orogen, with the following char- 

 acteristics : 



The two parallel systems are overturned away from each other^ each 

 over its own foreland. Measured from one foreland to the other, the 

 average width of the entire unit is about 1,000 kilometers, although 

 locally it varies considerably from this figure. Typically, as in the 

 Hungarian lowlands and in central Asia Minor a broad intermontane 



* With regard to the Caucasus, Kober is at variance with several other geologists, 

 including Suess, who have reported these mountains as overturned to the south. 



