Morphology Of The Berca Mud Volcanoes
Mud volcanoes at Berca
The mud volcanoes are situated within the area of Berca village, Buzau county, on the left bank of the Berca river. They develop in the Berca depression in several places, known by such names as (from south to north): “La Fierbatori”, “Paclele Mari”, “Paclele Mici”, “Beciu”. Access road is the Buzau-Brasov highway; at a crossroads in Satuc (a small town situated 20 km far from Buzau, which can be also reached by railroad) , a modernized byroad leads afer 2 km to the village of Berca. From here, two carriageable roads end up in the mud volcano fields.
These volcanoes have been known for more than a century and have aroused the interest of researchers on account of their connection with the oil fields located on the same area and of their extremely original manifestation.
Types of mud volcanoes in the world and in Romania.Mud volcanoes are distinguished from “normal” volcanoes through their genesis, the released material of the eruption, and conspicuously reduced forms and phenomenas. They emerge as a result of natural gases (methane) eruption, post-volcanic emanations (solfatara and fumarole) and seismic impact.
Mud volcanoes which erupt due to natural gas eruption. They result from emanations of gas released from store-rocks situated at various depths. In its way to surface, the gas carries fresh or salt water, which softens and weathers the encountered rocks and soil layers, bringing them to surface along minimal resistance lines.
This type of mud volcanoes are to be found in Russia, Italy, North Iran and Iraq, India and Burma, in the south of the USA, Venezuela, Colombia, Romania. In Romania, they are located in the Transylvanian Depression (Cluj, Alba, Sibiu and Mures counties), the Moldavian Plateau(Iasi county), in Gorj Subcarpathians and in Buzau Subcarpathians .
The Berca depression covers the area between the locality of Berca to the south and the locality of...
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