Académique Documents
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FLORINA PETRE
florinica_petre@yahoo.com
School No. 2 Sf. Maria, Bucharest
CTLINA ERBAN
catalinaserban10@yahoo.com
National College Gh. Lazr, Bucharest
ABSTRACT. The selected theme emphasizes the diversity of the geographic and
geological elements, many of them have been declared reservations or monuments
of nature. The area Loptari-Berca-Coli is characterized by an extremely varied
landscape (especially geomorphological and geological). It is situated in the Bent
(Curvature) Sub Carpathians, where there is an active tectonics, complicated by the
on-going earth movements. Within a restricted area, there are many natural
resources; the most important being: oil, salt and amber and connected to the
presence of oil there is also a natural phenomenon known as Muddy Volcanoes.
The presence of salt has conducted to a karst micro relief. The intense degradation
of ground (soil) due to many factors (inclination of the layers to vertical,
lithological variation, seismic movements, heavy rains, deforestations) has
produced a natural landscape which has to be explored and protected, mainly for
promoting the tourism in this particular area.
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Salt blocks buried in silt appear on the surface of the valleys of the
Jgheab, Meledic, Prul Srat rivers, as salt diapir structures. Reddish
argillite and siltic interbeds can be found as imprinting a parallel
lamination-type structure (Fig. 2. and 3.).
Fig. 2. Flower-shaped
Fig. 3. Clints
crystallization
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Fig.4. The Meledic Carstic Plateau: Lakes with sweet whater and Sinkhole
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mud, of the polygonal forms of the cracks, but foremost of the cones that
dominate the plains and from which the rhythmic dripping of mud
brought on by the eruptions that are accompanied by noises and
babbling. In the drier summer the volcanoes activity is weaker and the
mud is thicker; in the rainy periods their activity intensifies. In the muddy
plains, the torrential erosion has created a chaotic landscape with increase,
ravines, ogase, meandering courses and rounded grits, a landscape likened
to the one from the moon.
Not far from Berca, on the valley of the Buzau river, between Prscov
and Bdila, there can be found two monuments of nature of geologic and
paleontological interest: The Salt of Buzau (0.8 ha.) and the Limestone
Blocks from Bdila (1.5 ha.) (Fig. 12).
The Limestone Blocks,
over 40 in number, can be
seen in the riverbed and on the
lower level of the river, and
are curiosity for this region
since there is not any calcar-
eous massif in this area.
The place known as The
Salt of Buzu, represents a
slope of the Buzu valley with
springs and saline efflores-
cence, a tectonic window, also
Fig.12. Large limestone rocks
from the Jurassic, is of geological and botanical
in the bad of river Buzu interest. Of the forest species,
only the Sea Buckthorn shrub
(Hippophare rhamnoides), vegetates on the saline excess and on the
excessive mineral soil.
The Coli Area is highlighted by the existence of the most important
amber deposit from our country.
The Coli amber is a distinctive variety, named rumanit, since 1891 by
the geologist Oscar Helm, who, thus, showed the differences between the
Romanian variety and the Baltic one, which he named succinit. It has been
declared monument of nature of geologic and paleontological interest that
extends on a 2.5 ha surface. It represents a fossil resin that came from
some pine tree species (Pinus succinifera). In the resin of these trees there
were often caught and perfectly preserved insects and other tiny animals
from the Oligocene period. The characteristic color is honey yellow or a
wax, yet having a color palette which varies from brown red to green
black. The local inhabitants of Coli have named it The Flower of Coli
(Fig. 13. and 14.).
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Fig.13. The Amber Museum of Coli Fig.14. Amber nuggets and jewelry
The amber collection, the only one of its kind in the country, is found in a
country style house specific to the area. Next to the beautiful jewelry and
unprocessed amber resin exhibits, the museum hosts as well a collection of
ethnographic objects: towels, pil-
lows, hemp and wool processing
objects, wooden household items
(flasks, spoons, scissors, bells).
At the Amber Museum from
Coli, you can see a nugget that
weighs 1785 grams.
The Rupestrial Complex
Aluni Nucu Fisici. The cave
settlements, skits and churches
from the Nucu Fisici Rugi-
noasa Aluni area, represent the
biggest concentration of skits and
monarchal housing in the Ro-
Fig. 15. Rupestrial Complex Aluni manian land. Situated at altitudes
between 650 m and 1100 m, in
the area of the municipalities mentioned above, they are well hidden in the
woods, being had to reach (Fig. 15).
From the Amber Museum following the valley of the Coli creek,
before the road ends we cross to the Rupestrial Aluni Complex, situated
at about 665 m altitude, it includes the church and the three skits dug in
stone (sandstone). Through the spruce forest, a small church can be seen,
made out of wood, painted blue, and it hides the entrance to the skit carved
in sandstone around the year 1274, by two shepherds, Vlad and Simon.
Attested in 1351, the Aluni Church, has functioned as a skit for monks,
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having its cells dug into stone, till 1871, since then, it has been the village
church.
The Loptari Berca Coli area has an important touristic potential,
due to the richness of its landscapes and the variety of its geological sites,
unfortunately, not sufficiently capitalized.
The poor management of the reservations and of the monuments of
nature (with the exception of the Muddy Volcanoes) but also the poor
condition of the roads, determines a weak touristic interest in this area.
REFERENCES
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