The Danube Delta is part of the largest European river – sea geo-system consisting of the Danube
River, the Danube Delta and the Black Sea. Each component of the system is described and the main characteristics
are given: the Danube River – total length – 2,860 km, mean water discharge at delta apex ~ 6,280 m3a-1, mean
sediment discharge ~ 40 Mt.a-1; the Black Sea ~ 420,000 km2, total water volume ~534,000 km3, salinity ~17‰
at surface and ~ 22‰ in the deep sea, anoxic conditions and H2S contamination occur below ~180–200 m
water depth. The Danube Delta is described extensively. The geomorphologic and sedimentary units of the
delta are: the exposed delta plain – over 5,800 km2, of which the marine delta plain – 1,800 km2, the delta-front
unit of ca. 1,300 km2 is divided into Delta-front platform (800 km2) and Delta-front slope (ca. 500 km2), the
Prodelta – more than 6,000 km2. On the outer shelf incised valleys of the Paleo-Danube River can be evidenced
and in the deep-sea zone a large Danube fan system occurs. A detailed presentation of the delta structure and
evolution is given. Delta formation was initiated in the Quaternary, when the Danube started flowing into the
Black Sea basin. During this time the Danube River brought into the Black Sea important volumes of
sediments that were accumulated in depocentres according to the sea water level. The depocentres migrated
from the extreme highstand position, represented by the present-day location of the Danube Delta, to the
lowstand ones, beyond the shelf break, forming the deep-sea Danube fan complex. The sediment volumes
accumulated within the lowstand depocentres and highstands ones are very different: the lowstand depocentre –
the Danube deep sea fan complex, stored over 40,000 km3 of sediments structured in at least 6 sequences
corresponding to the main glaciations with an accumulation rate that ranges between 88×106 t/a and 302×106 t/a
(Wong et al., 1997; Winguth et al., 1997, 2000), while the amount of sediments accumulated in the present-day
Danube Delta, including all the morphologic and depositional units, as Fluvial and Marine Delta Plains, the
Delta-front unit and the Prodelta, is only of some 1,200 km3. The present-day Delta is formed of a sequence of
detrital deposits ranging from tens to 200–300 meters thick that accumulated during the Upper Pleistocene
(Karangatian, Surozhian, Neoeuxinian) and mainly in the Holocene. The Holocene evolution of the Delta
records the following main phases: (1) the “blocked Danube Delta” and formation of the Letea-Caraorman
initial spit, 11,700–7,500 years BP; (2) the St. George I Delta, 9,000–7,200 years BP; (3) the Sulina Delta, 7,200–
2,000 years BP; (4) the St. George II and Kilia Deltas, 2,800 years BP – present; (5) the Cosna-Sinoie Delta,
3,500–1,500 years BP. These ages are presently under discussion. Giosan et al., 2005, proposed younger ages for the
initial stages of delta development (in their scenario, the St. George I phase could not be much older than
~5,500–6,000 yr. BP). The modern time delta evolution is presented starting with the descriptions given by ancients,
continuing with the evolution recorded in the last two-three centuries until nowadays. The anthropogenic factors
(river damming, meander belts cut-offs, dykes and groins etc.) influencing the development of the delta are analysed.