The relief of Romania as a theme in geographical research

Abstract

The article summarises the main results in the study of Romania's relief, especially after 1950, following extensive and detailed research work involving new methodologies. The following problems are being considered: (1) the levelled surfaces; (2) the ‘glacis’; (3) piedmonts; (4) terraces; (5) the glacial epoch in the Carpathians, zonal division and structure of periglacial forms; (6) the evolution of the main valley net; (7) the morphochronological scale. Three main morphogenetical epochs are mentioned in this last section: pre-Hercynian, Hercynian and Carpathian. The pre-Hercynian epoch has two stages: the Cambrian fossil peneplain and the post-Caledonian complex peneplain. The Hercynian has two stages: the post-Hercynian peneplain and the Kimmerian stage (with four substages); the Carpathian epoch has two major stages: old Carpathian (with four minor stages) coinciding with the formation of the Carpathian pediplain, and the neo-Carpathian (with six stages: morphotectonic inversions, Carpathian central peaks and Miocene piedmonts, border surfaces, piedmont sub-Carpathian terraces, glacial and periglacial relief, and finally, the present stage of modelling).