_____ Zonation is characteristic of the tectonic structure of the Ukrainian Carpathians. They consist of four longitudinal structural zones, which extend from the northwest to the southeast: (1) the outer or overthrust fold zone, 40 km wide, built of Cretaceous and Paleogene flysch (mostly sandstone) formed into anticlinal folds that were broken and thrust towards the southeast (at the edge of the Carpathians they often cover the Miocene strata of Subcarpathia); (2) the central synclinal zone, 30–40 km wide: at its surface intensely folded Upper Oligocene strata of soft, sand-clay sediment are most common; (3) the core of the inner anticlinal zone, consisting primarily of crystalline rock formations—crystalline schists, gneiss, quartzite, and crystalline limestones—and, to a lesser extent, of Triassic and Jurassic strata—limestones, sandstones, porphyrites, and conglomerates—which emerge to the surface only in the Maramureş-Bukovynian Upland; however, this basic core is often overthrust with flysch strata from the Cretaceous and Lower Paleogene periods, folded, frequently dissected, and in places pushed towards the north; (4) a zone of volcanic deposits—trachytes, andesites, rhyolites, and tuffs—separated from the rest of the Carpathians by the Inner Carpathian Valley and the Maramureş Basin, which are covered by horizontal layers from the Miocene period.

Landscape. The Ukrainian Carpathians are typical mountains of medium height with rock of low resistance. Gentle, broad, and little-dissected ridges and parallel valleys contrast with the deeply incised (up to 1,000 m) transverse valleys with steep slopes that are the result of the relief's rejuvenation. Only the highest parts of the Carpathians—mainly the Hutsul Alps and Chornohora—display a high-mountain landscape owing to past glaciation. Rock fields appear only here and, more markedly, in the Gorgany Mountains, but even the highest peaks of the Carpathians are covered with clays and continuous vegetation.