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@eormorphofl ogfi o Sllouuoeo tw@@@E

I r.rvrsncATroNs oF soM E pREsENT-DAy G EoMo RpHoroG rcAL

PROCESSES IN THE ATPINE AREA OF IHE SOtMTTNru CNNPATHIANS
(TnnNsvrvaNAN Arrs)

PETRU URDEA*, FLORIN VUIA", MIRCEA ARDELEAN*, M]RCEA VOICULESCU-,

MARCEL rOnor-oANCE*

P. Urdea, F. Vuia, M. Ardelean, M. Voiculescu, M. Tcirok0ance: tnvestigations of some

presentday geomorphological processes in the alpine area of the Southern Carpathians
(Transylvanian Alps). Geomorhologia Slovaca, 4, ZO@., 1 , 10 figs., 4 tabs., 23 refs.
This paper presents the preliminary results of the monitoring program associated with the
research grant Recent geomorphological processes in the alpine domain of the Southern
Carpathians in the perspective of the global climatic changes elaborated by the geomorphological
study group of the West Unlversity of Timi;oara. The main objective of the project, is to offer a
realistic overview of the presentday geomorphological processes in the alpine domain of the
Southern Carpathians situated in the periglacial and boreal morphoclimatic belt (steps).
We have in attention soils and the geological sublayer freezing and frost -heaving, the movement
of the ploughing boulders, the accretion on the scree cones, degree of vegetation cover of
scree cones, the granular disintegration, epigenetical processes induced by the biochemical
action of lichens, talus and rocks creep, debris flow phenomena, nivation and evolution of
sporadic permafrost existing within some rockglaciers and scree cones.
Key words: Southern Carpathians, alpine area, geomorphological processes

lrurnooucrroN
Southern Carpathians (Tlansylvanian Alps), more
The geomorphological study group of the West precisely in Muntele Mic, Retezat, Paring and Fd-
University of Timiqoara is engaged in the project giraq Mountains (Fig. 1).
entitled fimt g@mor?hological praw6 n the
alptae daaain of tbe 9oufre.ru Capathiaas ta the We want to specifu the fact that in this ar-
pttpbue of the gtlobal climahc chaagw': T\e ob - ticle we consider as being included in the alpine
jective of the project, among others, is to offer a area the entire space placed above the timberline.
realistic overview of the recent geomorphological It is necesary to mention that our results are pre-
processes inthe alpine domain ofthe Southern Car- liminary.
pathians, ofthe typology oftheir occurrence espe-
cially in the context of the global climatic changes.
Because mountains posses the fastest global chan-
ging dynamie landscapes, this dyna:rrics being the
cause of and typical to the relief, it is normal to
pay an important attention to the present morpho-
dynamics, correlated with the climatic and biogeo-
graphical changes.
For t]re present work we have chosen some
aspects concerning present-day geomorphological
processes - processes that represent the object of
the monitoring program related to the above men-
tioned research grant - in tJre alpine area ofthe
most reprasentative mountain unit of Romania: tlre

*
West University of Timipoar4 Department of Ceography, &dul. V. PArvan, Nr. 4, 300223- Timipoar4
Romani4 email: urdea@cbg.ur,t.ro
illl@l@@48

Tnr sruoY nnrn

The Southern Carpathians, or Thansylvanian
Alps, are situated between Prahova Valley in the
nast, tin4-Cerna Passage in the West, tansyl-
vanian Basin in the North and Getic Subcar-
pathians inthe South (Fig.l).This mountain area
iorros the most massive and highest part of the
Romanian Carpathians, having 14 peaks above
2,500 m and a maximum elevation of 2,544rcir:
Moldoveanu Peak (Fng5rag Mountains)' Ten per-
cent of the mountain area lies above 2,000 m'
Pleistocene glaciers reached elevation of
1,10G1,200 m during their maximum extension,
and carved an extensive suite ofalpine glacial lan-
dforms with sharp peaLs and ridges, with cirques,
steep slopes and U-shaped valleys (unone 2000)'
T'he interaction of paraglacial processes and pe-
riglacial phenomena produced a variety of perigla-
cial forms (roch glaciers, talus cones and scree slo-
pes, block fields, rock sbeams, oryoplanation ter-
races, solifluction forms) ([Jnona 1992)' The most 15.08.1993 at lareu, 195.6 mm at 3'06'1988 at
part of the Southern Carpathians is occupied by Bdlea-Lake - appear to be responsible for the tor-
crystalline rock and magmatic bodies of granites rential erosion and debris-flow activity in the So-
and granodiorites, especially in the Retezat ParAng uthern Carpathians.
andTarcu Mountains. The high degree of higrical continentality -
The climatic conditions specific for the high Tarcu -61" 50' and Omu -63' 50 -favours the spre-
zone of the Southern Carpathians are cold, wit'h ading of periglacial phenomena (e'g' rock glaciers)
the mean annual air temperature of 3
'C atCozia (Jnone 1993).
(1,577 m), 0.2"C atBilea-Lake (2,038m), -{'5'C T'he upper limitof the forest is situated ge-
atTarcu (2,L80 m) and -2.6 "C at Omu (2,505 m), nerally between 1,700 and 1,850 m, climbing ma-
"C. The isother:rr
with an absolute minimum of --38 inly on the southern displayed mountain sides and
of 3 'C mean annual temperature indicating the descending on the northern displayed ones'
Iower limit of periglacial environment 4scqlding
to Fnm,rcs (1996), is situated around 1,700m a's'I'
Flom the Peltier diagram the morphoclimatic sys-
FIII-O DATA AND MEASUREMENT RESULTS
tems for which we selected the above mentioned
meteorological stations we can observe that they
Although the alpine area of the Southern
are affrIiated to the periglacial system (unona and
Carpathians belongs to the periglacial and boreal
SineovAN 1995, VolcuLescu 2000), withphysical do-
morphoclimatic levels the present-day geomorpho-
rninance for Omu and BAIea-Lake, boreal system
logical processes are very complex, and the perigla-
for Tarcu andtemperatefor Cozia(Fig' 2)' The great
cial processes are associated with the erosional
nnmber of the frost d'ays - 2O7.9 day{yerar at the
ones. T']tere are also considered the phenomena
BAIea-Lake and 255 dayq/year at the Omu Peak
with seasonal development as well as the pheno-
and over 125 of the freeze-thaw cycles, and the great
mena of sporadic manifestation.
value of the gelivation coefEcient for the mainrod<s
(e.g. eranite - 31, granodiorite - 36, gneiss - 35, am- Considering the fact that tlre recent geomor-
pUifome - 44) exptain the efficiencv of the frost phological processes are developing on t'he preexis-
weathering. i"nt"ttup"" ofrelief, the constuuction of the digital
models ior the areas under study allow the con-
The mean annual precipitation is 844'2 mm
strrrction of other geomorphological mapping ma-
al Cozia, 1,fuL6 mn at B6lea-Lake, 1,180 mm at
terials, extremely usefirl in the context of geomor-
Tarcu and 1,280 at Omu. The thidoess of the snow phological mapping of land, such as the tridimen-
layer can be between 50 and 370 cm and is highly -sionJmodel,
the slope map, the exposition of the
variable aeording to wind action. About ffi'I\o/o of relief surfaces.
the precipitations falls as snow, and the snow co-
lret io the t"gion lasts between 150-210 days of the Amongthe seasonal ones there were investi-
year. The heavy rainstorms, occasionally in late gated the soil and the geological sublayer ry"C
spring, in summer and in auturm -217'4 mm at andfrostbeavg phenomena implicated in the pro-

6
@eommorphroilogfl o Silouoeor
Fig. 3 Thermic and periglatial lprting in a periglacial
cess of the thermic sorting and periglacial sorting
€ig. 3), with effects on the development of the ve-
geration in the alpine area but al"o on its occur-
re.nce on detritic deposits, situations typical in Cog-
tila Mountains of the Bucegi Mountains, C6rja in
ParAng or Laila in Fngaraq Mountains.
For the investigation of the frost-heaving
phenomenon there are monitored two areas on
I\,I',:ntele Mic Mountain, i.e. a field of periglacial
earth hummocks at the 1,765 m a.s.I. and an area
with norrrral status, at 1,77 4 m a.s.l., using elevme-
ters BAC.
Periglacial elevation is analyzed in correla-
tion with the freezing depth. For this parameter
there were used Danilin cryometers.
2003 y€un
Ft
Fig. 4 Frost heaving valu6rin huihrnocky area (a) end
ln a ftat ground area (b)
tw@@@4[
These are installed both together with the
elevmeters BAC, as weII as in the peripheral area
of a nivation niehe and on the plateau close to Mic
Mountain (1 ,801.5m). The values of frost-heaving
are differentiated in hummocky area and in flat
ground area (Fig.4) and are corellatedwith snow
layer thiclcress (Fig. 5).
In order to find the movement of the plou-
ghingboulders we consider how such blocks were
placed in different ecological conditions in the
Muntele Mic Mountain (FIg. 6) and in ParAngul
Mic Mountain, their monitoring showing the fact
that solifluction phenomena associatedto the plou-
ghing boulders are a morphodynamic reality of the
alpine Carpathianbelt (Tab. 1).
The accretion of materials on the basis of the
avalanche couloirs and on the scree conqs was ana-
lyzed by means of frost-shattered rocks placed on
the snow patches at the basis of the walls and ste-
ep slopes. The amounts gathered varied between
0.5 ksAro'(0.003 ms) and4.5 ke[n2(0.026 mB) it dif-
ferences between the northern and the southern
slope and between the area moulded on cnystalli-
ne schists and granites. In case of monitoring some
areas with a particular Iithologic and geomorpho-
logical situations, there are representative area like
Circul Vaiuga in Fagaraq Mountains
For exarrrple in June 2C0l2the amounts va-
ried between 1,650 cmszlm2 attd27,367.75 cm3/m2.
In case of some scree cones partially colonized with
! ncraept
ffi snw-la-ver d:ickrx
t212.2002 0r{ 02 zlxl:l
a.
fidffffit
I f.n+ aq,ttt
@ sp*'lalerdriclor+s
b.
 ilil@@@48
1Ta.b. 1 Pfo-ughi
vegetation like the cone in Mija Cirque (parAng
Mts.) there was recorded the way in which some
assembles made of the branches of pinus mugo
bushes kept the materials that came from the walls
and fi om the upper part of the slopes, the values of
the material accretion being between 0.01g and
0.221m't1orz.
lihere was also considered the degree of ve-
getafioa covering ofscree corres as a tendency of
fixing on the general warming background. Ana-
lyzing for example such a cone on Mija cirque we
deterrnined that the grassy surface occupies 42 ,/o
ofits surface.
the granular disintegration, so characteris_
tic tir ihe macrogranular rocks like the granites
typic:i to the Southern Carpathians, was also con_
Fig- I Epigenetic micromorpirotpgy ind,
licher s in iletezat Mts. grr;oaiorits
8
sidered. For this there were established a few points
of investigation of the process on the Retezat
Mountains granites in the Lolaia station at l,Tbb
m using tJre "painting" method.
Because in very a lot of eases the frost shat-
tered blocks are covered with lichens we conside-
1ed that the epigenetical processes induced by the
biochemical action, there should be made amone
complex analysis. There can be observed that ac-
cording to the density of the lichens and to the cha-
racteristic saxicol species, there appears a diffe-
rence of the resultedmicroshapes €is. Z).
In order to find the annual rate of talus and
rock creep we consider cones and scr.ee cones on
Iolaia Mountain but also "stone banked lobes" of
,,roc\r solifluction" like the one on Geminarea
Mountain in Par6ng (Fig. 8). The movements of
rock debris are di.fferentiated for the different ty-
pical parts oflobe (Iab. 2).
In case ofthe sporadic geomorphologicalphe-
nomena we consider the avalanches, rock fall, deb_
ris flows their investigationbeing accordingto the
gpical methodologT. In case of the rain higgered
debris flov/s, the sudden thawing of the snow or by
the avalanches from the slush-avalanches catego-
ry, w€ continued to follow the mentioned pheno_
menon and its consequences in Vdiuga and C6lda-
rea Pietroasi a Doarrrrei in Figdrag Mountains as
well as in the new area of StAnigoara Valley and
Valea rea in Retezat Mountains (Fis. g).
The morphometrical investigations on the deb-
ris flow cones were associated with grain size ana-
lysis of the deposits (Iab. 3 and 4) that were buil-
ding these cones, together with lichen analysis for
the estabiishment of the cyclicity of this phenome-
non. In order to assure the success of this method
the licheeoometic calibnation was there necessary,
consideringthe wih:ess sarrrples established in 1g95.
Because analyzing the geoecological and
morphod5marnic specifies ofthe area can't omitthe
role ofthe snow, in the spring of 2008 we observed
the avalanches especially under the circurnstan-
ces of massive snow falls as well as under those of
nivation phenomenon, within some niches and ni-
vation depressions in Muntele Mic Mountain and
Fdgerat Mountains.
 frll@@@4r
@eormorphroflogfio 5fllovoeo

rl'r,

For exemple, on the Muntele Mic on 7 lines

there were made observations on the structure of
snow and measurements of the thichress, tempe-
rature - using digital therrnometers, densit5r and
RAM resistance of snow -using RAM penetrome-
ters, and the shape and size of snow and firn
crystals to different depths as well as on the creep
of the snow"trrnses - using snow-creepmeters'

Weproposedto findoutwhatthe effects of the

present tendencies of climate on the permafrost are'
The method we used is that of BTS measure-
ments of the penrrafrost belonged to some rock gla-
ciers, as well as to some frost shattered rocks pla-
cedunderthe walls ofthe glacial cirques inPardng,
larcu, Fngera€ and Retezat Mountains - under
typical climate conditions. As well we continued
the monitoring activity of sporadic perrnafrost exis-
tingwithin some rockglaciers and some scree rock
cones. We also measured the temperature of the
springs placed at tJ:eir foot.
The part of investigation was represented also
by dendroclrrmological and itendroecological shr-
dies, using Pressler borer, namely in Mija cirque
(Paring Mountains) and Pietrele, St6niEoara and
Valea Rea @etezat Mountains) ([Jmse 1998), con-
conritantly doing lichenometrical investigations'
Being known the morphodynamic complexi-
ty of the alpine area, with the occurrence of typical
morphogenetieal contexts, imposed by the associa-
tiorof some conditions typical to the periglacial
Ievel solifluction - with those typical to the river
torrential Ievel - superficial and linear erosion and
gully formation processes - there were studied
and mapped phenomeua and mezo-Iandfonrcs of
nature, like, for example, those placed
"o*po"it"
ott th" northern slopes of Paltina Mountain and
on the southern slopes of the Laila Mountain in
Fagdrag Mountains. Here, the solifluction slope is
affected, in the time of excessive lninfall, both by
superficial slidings as well as by superficial and
torrential erosion.
In ord.er to havemany data as possible on
as
the geomorphological aspect of the alpine level in
the Southern Carpathians with the possibility of
comparing different mountain areas, we made t'he
g""-""phol"gicalmappingof some areas in the key
mountain areas like Arpagu Mic-LniJel for exam-
ple in the FdgeraS Mountains and Mija in the
Parang Mountains, the geomorphological maps
being elaborated at large scales.

0,4-1.1
iti, 94 225A=2284 39-28 150 1-4 6
18 0.3-1,2
90 2010-2130 42-24 130 t=6
2050-2130 33-5 725 1-L2 36 0.3-0.9
320
780-1 950 30-4 150 2-5 14 0,25-1,05
98 1

W:range of flow
Dir.: mean direction; AR: altitudinal range; SR: slope range; L: lenglh;
wrcl$;uF1..t3,1$'*face;D:.deP* "t" i,,..1+,,r:i1i.r,il
Tab. 3 t lorpt,o*utticit cnaracteristics of the debris flows
 I.- Y[i-ug1 IJ - AwiS; iII - Ropiile; fV Stdnigoara.
-
Ia.p;1+,siae-o.mpsiron{%}igri,oebiit]@!!fr Iri1,
iiii;'9,'0C6ii5.,,@;;'urai.nae! ffi-
CoNcr-usloN
Although the monitoring program of some
present-day geomorphological processes has not
been still finished, it is possible to state that in the
alpine area of the Southern Carpathians (Tlan-
sylvanian Alps) the operation ofperiglacial pro-
cessesrepresent an important element of contem_
poraly mo{phogenesis. This statement is based on
theresults of the study of suchphenomana as frost
heave, rocks creep, solifluction and accretion of
material on the scree cones.
AcrNowlEDcEMENTs
the tnvestig:ah'ons was financialty supported by
CNCSIS as part of the Eqearch Grant AZ&Z (fu)
and 25O8(2M). We exlcras oursincere il1anl$ to
Sortna Voiculscu for Eng:lish h.ansla hon.
l0
Jr..:l
Fiq.l!C.rgssfrofile in the middte farrof the nivation
niche in Muntele Mic Mts. (April 2002)
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