Carinthia is covered almost everywhere by the Eastern Alps. The Drautal valley divides the crystalline central Alps with rounded tops in the north of the precipitous Southern Limestone Alps.

The Hohen Tauern mountains count to the central alps and are divided into the following groups: Glockner group, Schober group, Hafner group, Kreuzeck group as well as Ankogel group with Reisseck and Hafner group. In the east of the central Alps the Nockberg mountains are located, also called Gurktal alps, with the Wimitzer and Metnitzer mountains. After them the Lavanttal alps with the Seetal alps, the Saualpe alp, the Stubalpe alp, the Packalpe alp and the Koralpe alp are situated.
The southern Kalk alps between the Drautal valley and the Gailtal valley include the Gailtal alps and the North-Karawanken mountains in the East. The Mesozoic rocks consist mostly of carbonate slabs which are composed of the remains of the skeletons of numerous living things (alga, corals, sponges, micro-organisms).

In the south of the Gailtal valley-Drautal valley line Carinthia is part of the southern alps which comprise the Carnican alps and the Southern Karawanken mountains. Bedded in this mountain landscape the Klagenfurt basin is the largest rift basin of the eastern alps. 2 millions years ago the earth´s crust sank at weak zones of the basin. Enormous masses of debris from the Karawanken mountains which were lifting filled them up. The brown coal of the Rosenbacher coal stratum was formed from the buried trees and the wood accumulations without any air supply. Due to the geologically young consequences of the glacial epochs in the quaternary, Carinthia is rich of lakes.

In the time of the ice ages the Drau glacier reached the Northern parts of Völkermarkt where the vast moraine embankments have been conserved. In the valleys which where formed by the glaciers the first lakes took form.