Retezat Mountains: glacial and periglacial geomorphology
Duration: 4 days, 3 nights;
Participants number: minimum 20, maximum 30;
Participation fee includes: bus transportation, meals, accommodation, coffee breaks, entrance fees. Costs will be available in November 2024.
Description: the field trip will be focused on Retezat Mountains, which are also the oldest national park and one of the few UNESCO biosphere reserves in Romania with high geodiversity and biodiversity. The mountain glacial and periglacial landscape has been well studied, several approaches dealing with palaeoglacial reconstruction both on north and south-facing valleys, permafrost detection and modelling, block streams formation and distribution, snow avalanches. Retezat Mountains have the most developed glacial landscape being subjected to intense glaciation in Pleistocene but they also have a wide range of periglacial features like rock glaciers, talus slopes and block fields. The elements of the glaciokarst landforms – deep cirques, sinks hole in moraines field, subglacial bowl – shaped potholes in the south calcareous area complete the complexity of the geomorphological landscape of this part of the Southern Carpathians. Also, the Haţeg tectonic basin with famous dwarfed dinosaurs and the ancient nearby Ulpia Traiana Sarmizegetusa, the former capital of the Dacia Roman province and numerous medieval settlements, are points of real interest.
