What is a geological Trianon? – Hungary is shrinking by the minute

However, this time, the so-called “geological Trianon” is not man-induced, rather, it is a natural phenomenon. Due to tectonic movements, Hungary is shrinking by about an average soccer field in the east-west direction every year. The same force is slowly eliminating the Mediterranean Sea and merging Europe with Africa.

The magnitude 6.4 earthquake which happened in Croatia at the end of 2020 still has aftershocks; the last tremor that could be felt in Hungary happened about a week ago, and the Petrinja region is expected to continue to experience the aftershocks for days or weeks. According to 24’s previous article, the earthquake was caused by the collision of the African and Eurasian tectonic plates. Most of the time, we do not feel it, but the two gigantic plates are pressed against one another at a speed of about six millimetres a year. This might not sound like a lot, but when accounting for the enormous mass of the two tectonic plates, those are monumental forces, and they are actively shaping the entire Earth’s surface.

This collision will lead to the disappearance of the Mediterranean Sea in about 10-100 million years from now, and you would not be able to tell where the divide between Europe and Africa is.

But what does the nicknamed “geological Trianon” mean exactly for Hungary? Well, at that speed, Hungary is compressed from the west to the northeast, and the two corners of the country get closer to each other by an average of two millimetres per year, which is about an average of 100 by 50-metre area loss every year. Think about it like resizing an image in your documents, but the rate is about a soccer field every single year.

To help us understand what exactly is going on under our feet and what causes it, 24 asked Dr Gábor Timár, a geophysicist at the head of the Department of Geophysics and Space Sciences at Eötvös Loránd University.

They break, fall, and deform

The scientist says that the easiest way to think about the tectonic plates is to imagine a river in early spring when the water is flowing, but there is still ice on its surface. The flowing water keeps the ice sheets in constant motion, and along the “faultlines” or where the ice broke, they keep pressing against each other. If there were enough space, some may move away, but those that are colliding create enormous tension; the blocks either crack even further, become congested, or one dives under the other, just like tectonic plates.

Pulling forces

Back to Europe and Africa: the faultline between the continents runs east on the line connecting Rhodes and Crete; south of this lies the oceanic remnants of the African plate. Further west, the collision zone goes around the Adriatic Sea.