Maria-Laura TîrlăUniversity of Bucharest | Unibuc · Department of Regional Geography
Maria-Laura Tîrlă
PhD
Geomorphology and sedimentology research for the study of landscape evolution, mainly in alpine environments.
About
25
Publications
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Citations since 2017
Introduction
Publications
Publications (25)
The Carpathian island-type glaciokarst has a great potential of preserving signals of past environments, archived in cave deposits like speleothems and clastic infills. We present here the geomorphology and structural control of several relict alpine caves and the surrounding glaciated marble karst in the Făgăraș Mountains. Four truncated and parti...
The Ponorul Suspendat Cave was discovered in 2015 and more than 9 km of passages were surveyed and mapped until present. Plentiful geomorphic evidence of tectonic deformations is exposed in all areas of the cave. We investigated the relationship between cave morphology and geological structure for speleogenetic insights, tectonic evolution and an e...
The area around the town of Mangalia in Southern Dobrogea (Romania) hosts a unique karst landscape represented mostly by large collapse dolines. Around one of these collapse dolines, named Obanul Mare, there is a peculiar morphology of hillocks that resemble the tropical labyrinth-cone karst but on a much-reduced scale. This peculiar relief was hyp...
![Figure 1. Location of study area modified from Bădescu & Tîrlă [27]....](profile/Ferenc-Forray/publication/353853096/figure/fig1/AS:1056149801553921@1628817143739/Location-of-study-area-modified-from-Badescu-Tirla-27-The-lithology-comprises-a_Q320.jpg)
In this study, we describe a sedimentary deposit situated above Ascunsă Cave (SW Romania) that should be in depositional connection with coeval stalagmites from the cave. We excavated a 2.5 m deep soil profile and took contiguous bulk samples every 5 cm. Soil samples were analyzed for clay mineralogy, grain size, chemical composition, magnetic susc...
Water stable isotope ratios (δ18O and δ2H) are ideal tracers in the hydrological cycle, providing information about air mass history, moisture sources, or underground flow. We present here the isotopic composition of precipitation and cave drip water on the south-facing side of the Buila–Vânturarița Massif (central South Carpathians). Precipitation...
When calcite precipitates in caves, its carbon stable isotope signature can be modified by the CO2 outgassing gradient between drip water and cave atmosphere. This effect is modulated by the water residence time in the cave, from its emergence in the cave until the deposition of calcite. Moreover, CO2 solubility, calcite precipitation rate, and iso...
Evaporite karst in Romania is mostly related to Miocene occurrences in the intra-Carpathian Basins, Subcarpathian Nappe, northern Dacian Basin and, to a minor extent, the Eocene in the NW Transylvanian Basin. Evaporitic karst areas account for 259 km² (salt karst 48%, gypsum and anhydrite karst 52%). The most typical landforms are: dolines, karren,...
The Făgăraș Mountains consisting mostly of impervious metamorphic rocks are an unlikely location for karst development. Yet, due to the occurrence of a series of marble stripes interbedded within the metamorphic rocks, several caves developed in two areas in the central part of the mountains: Piscu Negru (at ~1200 m) and Mușeteica-Râiosu (between ~...
As part of a microclimate study at Ascunsă Cave, Romania, we used Gemini Tinytag Plus 2 data loggers to record cave air temperature variability. At one of the monitoring points we recognized the presence of semidiurnal cycles on the order of a few thousands of a degree Celsius that could be produced under the influence of the semidiurnal tidal comp...
We present here the results of a 4-year environmental monitoring program at
Ascunsă Cave (southwestern Romania) designed to help us understand how
climate information is transferred through the karst system and archived by
speleothems. The air temperature inside the cave is around 7 °C,
with slight differences between the upper and lower parts of t...
Passage morphology and well-preserved kinematic indicators in a limestone-mélange contact cave from the South Carpathians provide evidence of thrusting mechanisms that occurred during the Late Cretaceous nappe emplacement. Large-scale normal faults occurred during the Eocene to Oligocene orogen-parallel extension, were deformed during the Late Mioc...
We present here the results of a four year environmental monitoring program at Ascunsă Cave, Romania, intended to understand how climate information is transferred through the karst system and archived in speleothems. The air temperature inside the cave is around 7 °C, with slight differences between the upper and lower parts of the 20 main passage...
Scarp retreat is a common natural process which drives the evolution of landscape in monoclinal or horizontally bedded structures. The NW-facing, retreating limestone slope of the Vânturarița-Buila Massif, a mountain ridge in the South Carpathians, is incised by steep dry valleys (SDVs), parallel to each other and perpendicular to the ridge crest....
High-alpine caves are currently in the spotlight of research as they are host to speleothems, key recorders of Quaternary environmental change. Based on modern survey and analytical techniques, we investigated the karst morphology of M3-R2 Cave, the highest alpine cave in the Romanian Carpathians. Spatial modeling in Compass has shown survey detail...
We focus on the tectonic and structural frame in which the caves and potholes in the central area of the Făgăraș Mountains (South Carpathians) have developed. The major faults in the highly karstifiable areas of Piscul Negru and Mușeteica were identified, measured and correlated to cave development patterns. Preliminary microtectonic analyses were...
![Table 4 Compositions and afforestation schemes [18].](profile/Gabriela-Manea/publication/269167440/figure/tbl3/AS:613446840242195@1523268532251/Compositions-and-afforestation-schemes-18_Q320.jpg)
Lenart and Pánek (2014) disagree with the term bogaz which we have attributed to the main structural discontinuities in the Vânturariţa-Buila Massif, Southern Carpathians. They also insist upon the mass movements as being the defining processes which generate them. Finally, the authors explain the genesis of fossil speleothems found in abundance on...
Stream erosion is a widely spread process in the Getic sub-Carpathians and Plateau (including the study sub-units). It is controlled by the high density of small drainage basins on a surface unit. Development of the 4th and 5th order valleys (according to Strahler's system) in the sub-Carpathians and of the 3rd and 4th order in the Olteţ Plateau wa...
Creating precise climatic maps (temperature and precipitation map especially) on small areas such as drainage basins or landform units is always very useful for ecology of plants, distribution of vegetation and also different types of agricultural land. The geographic information system (GIS) analysis of several key-factors (aspect and slope of ter...
Brine exploitation began in 1960 at Ocnele Mari for the purposes of chemical industry (chlorosodic products) at Oltchim and Govora industrial plants. Due to the increasing demand for salt and subsequently to its exploitation, huge underground cavities for the coalescence of extraction fields took place between the '70s and the '80s. Unlike other sa...
Projects
Projects (5)
A good knowledge on the geological conditions which control karstogenesis is of utmost importance in the study of karst landforms as recorders of Quaternary environmental change. The glaciated marble stripe karst of Făgăraș Mountains is unique in the Carpathians with its high-elevation setting (>2000 m) and location in the SE Europe.
In this project, we aim at describing the lithology of the marbles and perform structural analysis of joints, faults and fractures, to assess the three levels of porosity which provided the karstification pathways. A multidisciplinary approach will be used, focusing on mineralogy, cave survey, morphometry of karst landforms, and comparative orientation analysis of structural and geomorphic features. The resulting data will be correlated and compared to information from other marble karst areas from Europe in order to identify the most important karstification processes that shaped the area.
