The Landforms of the Făgărăș Mountains (The Argeș Mountain Catchment): Analysis of the Related Dynamic Processes

Abstract

The present configuration of the Fagaras Mountains is a snapshot of the long-term evolution that brought about significant alterations of the landscape, and especially of the relief, which has acquired different features depending on the intensity of the relationship between the exogenous and endogenous agents. Relief shaping in the study area is controlled by the orographic and climatic features. However, the climate of the high and middle-height mountains is the main cause that determines the mechanism, the intensity and the spatial distribution of the shaping processes. The massiveness and the considerable height of the Fagaras Mountains, which exceed 2500 m altitude (Moldoveanu peak 2544 m, Negoiu peak 2535 m, Lespezi peak 2522 m, Vanatoarea lui Buteanu peak 2507 m, etc.), are responsible for the vertical zonation of climate and vegetation. The study area lies in the middle of the Southern Carpathians range, on the southern slope of the Fagaras Mountains (the Arges mountain catchment). The scale of investigated phenomena and the frequency of their occurrence allow us to distinguish two types of different phenomena on the basis of their geological or geomorphological origin. Each slope section was analyzed by using a series of parameters considered as being stable from the morphodynamic point of view.