Glaciar Relief and Pleistocene Glaciation in Retezat Mountains
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pzc No.5 p 4-7 smooth and rounded levelled surfaces Glaciar Relief and Pleistocene of the Borăscu sculptural complex, pro- ducing a “Godeanu landscape type”. Be- Glaciation in Retezat cause this situation is characteristic of some extended areas from the Roma- nian Carpathians, we tend to speak (Vel- Mountains (Transylvanians cea, 1973) about a Carpathian type gla- ciation. The glacial cirques from the Romanian Carpathians are called by Alps, Romania) the locals “căldări “ (= cauldron) and “zănoage”, their form could be found in Ureda, P.* the general definition given to the gla- cial cirques (Evans and Cox, 1974). The glacial cirques spread between Abstract The article describes the glacial ecause in the international glacio- 1670 m - median floor altitude - (the relief and the development of Pleistocene logical and geomorphological com- Capu Slăveiului cirque) and 2200 m a.sl. glaciation for one of the most representa- Bmunity the glacial relief and the de- (the Păpuşa cirque). The Galeşul cirque tive mountain units of Romania, the Re- velopment of Pleistocene glaciation in reaches the maximum depth of 530 m tezat Mountains, with special attention the Romanian Carpathians are extreme- and the maximum length of 1975 m, to the glacial cirques and valleys. Some ly little known, we present this prob- and the Zănoaga-Judele glacial cirque morphometric elements have been used lem for one of the most representative complex reaches 3.5 km breadth. to analyse the specific way in which the mountain units in Romania, the Retezat Following the orientation of the gla- glaciers have modelled the relief of Re- Mountains. cial cirques and valleys - situated fur- tezat Mountains - the surface area, the The Retezat Mountains are situated ther on the glacial cirques - in the Re- perimeter and circularity index for gla- on the west side of the Southern Car- tezat Mountains, (fig. 1) 64.5 % present cial cirques and depth, valley top width pathians, or the Transylvanian Alps, be- a Northern general orientation (N, NW, and form ratio for glacial valleys, as well longing to the Retezat - Godeanu moun- NE) and 35.5 % present a southern one as the relations between them expressed tain group (fig. 5a), reaching a maxi- (S,SW, SE). Certain morphographic and by regression equations. Assimilating the mum height of 2509 m a.s.l. in Peleaga morphometric features like the form on longitudinal profile of the cirques of a Peak. The whole area extends over 453 the plane, the planimetric form and the logarithmic curve y = k(1-x)e-x that km2, but the relief situated in the alpine N describes the concavity of the longitudi- zone (over 1800 m a.s.l.) represents 27 % NNW NNE nal profile, we found together with the of the surface. As far as geology is con- NW NE known values 0.5, 1 and 2 of the con- cerned, the main characteristic of Retez- stant k, that describes the concavity of at Mountains is given by the presence WNW ENE the longitudinal profile, there are cirques in the central area of the Retezat gran- that need the new value 1.5. The geo- itoid syntectonic body, surrounded at morphological mapping has allowed a re- its edges by crystalline schists, repre- W E construction of the development of the sented especially by amphibolites and Pleistocene glaciation in this mountain gneisses. 10 ESE area. In the Lolaia phase, (Riss II), the The first observations of the glacial WSW 15 maximum phase, the glaciers occupied nature of the relief, belonging to Lehm- 20 SE 25 % of the surface of these mountains, ann (1885), were disputed by von Inkey SW 25 SSW SSE reach down to 1035-1100 m.a.s.l., and (1892), but E. de Martonne (1907) anal- 30% the altitude of the perennial snow limit ysed minutely the morphology of South- is placed at 1646 m, the longest glacier, ern Carpathians, the glacial relief being Fig. 1 Orientation of the glacial cirques Lăpuşnicu Mare having 18.1 km. The presented as an unchallenged morpho- and valleys in the Retezat Mountains. last glaciers existed in the Younger logical certainty. sizes of the rock-walls, their slope and Dryas (Beagu phase) in which there were the slope of the floor of the cirque, the only very small lens shaped glaciers, only Aspects of the Glacial form of the transversal and longitudinal in the cirques situated at an altitude of profiles are elements which make pos- over 2150 m. Relief sible the differentiation of some distinct Glacial relief dominates the geomorpho- types of cirques and reflect certain mor- logical landscape of the Retezat Moun- phogenetical characteristics. For exam- tains. The central part of the massif ple, taking into consideration the form with glacial cirques and valleys, peaks on the plane in the Retezat Mountains, and sharpened ridges, grouped togeth- there are all the type of cirques quoted er into two gipfelflur levels, creates a in literature (Benn and Evans, 1998). Tak- typical alpine landscape called “Făgăraș ing into account three representative type relief” by Romanian geomorphol- morphometric and morphographic ele- ogists. In fact, the glacial cirques and ments, the surface (S), the perimeter (P) valleys are the most representative land- and circularity index (CI = 4 S/P2), and 2 * Petru Urdea, West University of forms of the glacial morphogenesis in their variations, (S max. = 2.1 km , S min 2 Timişoara, Dept. of Geography, B-dul. the Southern Carpathians. In area ad- = 0.12 km , P max. = 7.4 km, P min. 2 km, V.Parvan 4, 1900 -Timişoara, Romania, jacent to the central zone, the glacial CI max. = 1.51, CI min. = 0.33 ), we estab- [email protected] cirques and valleys are moulded in the lished that the relations between these 4 pzc Urtdea, P. morphometrical elements being defined nal profile, there are cirques that need orthocline cirques (e.g. Lazăru, Gruniu, by the following equations: the new values 1.5 (fig. 3). Taking into ac- Văcarea). Following the azimuthal and count the aspect of the longitudinal pro- height distribution of the cirques differ- CI = 1.206 - 0.091 P (r = 0.366) file and the morphogenetic effect of the entiated by the value of k (fig. 3a), one CI = 1.039 - 0.119 S (r = 0.209) ice rotational movement (Haynes, 1968), may notice that, for example, the major- Because “r” has small values, this Table 1 Some morphometric data of glacial cirques in the Retezat Mountains suggest a very limited dependence of the circularity index in rapport with the surface and of the perimeter of the gla- cial cirques. It has also been followed other mor- phometrical elements as length (L), width (W), depth (D), L/W ratio, L/D ratio and D/W ratio, their values (Table 1) being able to be compared with the specific ones for Bendor Range - Bridge River District(British Columbia) (Evans, 1974), Swedish Lapland (Vilborg, 1977), Central Sweden (Vilborg, 1984), Austrian Alps and Highland of Britain (Embleton and Hamann, 1988; Evans and Cox, 1995). Fol- lowing, for example, the rapartition on classes of values of the cirques width, 26 of them (56.5 %) had the width between 500 and 1000 m (fig. 2), the situation re- sembling those from the Scandinavian Mountains (Rudberg, 1994). Starting from the comparison of the longitudinal profile of the cirques with a logarithmic curve of the form y = k(1- x)e-x (Haynes, 1968), for the cirques in the Retezat Mountains together with the values 0.5, 1 and 2 of the constant k, that describes the concavity of the longitudi- 60 % 50 40 30 20 10 Fig. 3 Logarithmic curves fitted to longitudinal profiles of the cirques from Retezat Mts.; a. altitudinal and azimuthal distribution of the cirques differentiated by the value of k. the values of k of 2 and 1.5 indicate just ity of the cirques with k = 2 are situated 0 the increased efficiency of the glacial ero- at over 2000 m a.s.l. and oriented north. m m m sion even in harder rocks, represented In order to estimate the asymmetry m especially by granites and granodiorites. of the Pleistocene glaciation in this part 500 m 000 It is revealed that the small values char- of the Carpathians, we proceeded to the acterize either the cirques situated at construction of a cumulative vector dia- 000-1 500-2000 > 2000 1 < 500 500-1 1 lower altitudes, affected by smaller gla- gram (Evans, 1969, 1977). We can find in cial phases (e.g. Buta, Pustnicu, Radeşu this way that the length of resultant vec- Fig. 2 The histograme of width of glacial Mic), or cirques situated in the area of tor has the value of 10.6, the azimuth of cirque in the Retezat Mountains. crystalline schists, and with a status of resultant vector has the value of 35° and 5 pzc the strength of resultant vector is 23 % close value to the minimal ones from constituted glaciers were large (Table 2). (fig. 4). According to Evans’ suggestions Beartooth Mts. in the Rocky Mountains The Lăpuşnicu Mare glacier, the biggest for interpretation, with this value, the (Graf, 1970). Consequently the values de- in the Retezat Mountains and maybe Retezat Mountains would belong to the crease from upstream to downstream, in all the Romanian Carpathians had a areas with weakly asymmetric manifes- that is from the sectors shaped in sever- length of 18.1 km and extended over an tation of the glacial phenomenon. In al glacial stages to the lower ones, affect- area of 40.1 km2. It was formed by the our opinion, this situation is due to the ed by a single glacial stage.