The Central Western Carpathians, sometimes referred as the Slovakocarpathian system, are a zone bounded by the Pieniny Klippen Belt from the North and the Meliata Belt from the South. The Pieniny Klippen Belt is a relatively thin but important dividing line separating the Outer Western Carpathians from the internal zones of orogeny. Together with the similar units of the Peri-Klippen zone it constitutes the Považie-Pieniny Belt. The largest portion of the Western Carpathians consists of the zone built of granitic and metamorphic rock (that metamorphic grade is generally higher in the North and lower in the South), and sedimentary cover overridden by thrust nappes of Mesozoic carbonate rocks. The zone consists of the Tatra-Fatra Belt of core mountains, the Vepor Belt, and the Gemer Belt. In their predominantly crystalline basement zones called the Tatric, Veporic, and Gemeric, thrusting (thick-skinned) is also present, but not as apparent. Geophysical investigation confirmed that the Gemeric is thrusted over the Veporic, and the Veporic over the Tatric. The Central Western Carpathians formerly constituted a portion of the East European craton continental shelf, and were situated more to the West, in the area of the present Switzerland, laterally joining the Outer Carpathians (represented by the Oravic). During the release of tension within the Alpine collision tectonic events, the stress was released to the flanks of the thrust belt, which caused the tectonic escape of the material. Central Western Carpathians were consequently pushed in the Northeast direction from the Alpine to Carpathian domain.