Photo credit: (c) Paul BUCIUTA / AGERPRES ARCHIVE

‘If you do not know and have not seen, let me tell you that this is the place where Devil built its cauldrons of boiling tar; muddy earth gurgles and boils, colder than the ice and blacker than the smog; then, out of gapping mouths, as wide as the entire valley where there is no draining, the mud jutes out, now as small as an ant, now as tall as an iris, and what’s more, at each of the dome’s mouth frothing mounds were built through which the Devil blabbers out the mud. Out of the abyss, down the hills, the dirty mud leaks out, parched and cracked by the sun, and the imbued earth is no place either for the knotgrass or for the thistle,’ writer Alexandru Odobescu (1834-1895) describes the area of the mud volcanoes in his ‘Pseudokinegetikos,’ a false hunting treatise.

Photo credit: (c) Cristian NISTOR / AGERPRES ARCHIVE

The Mud Volcanoes is a mixed geological and botanic reserve divided in two communes: Berca and Scortoasa.

Photo credit: (c) Cristian NISTOR / AGERPRES ARCHIVE

The Berca-Arbanasi anticline belongs to a very geologically active area that is crossed by various longitudinal and transversal faults that make the region looks like a labyrinth. Along the anticline, on the dislocation lines and in the points where the faults join the axis of the anticline, mud volcanoes are formed, for the first time scientifically recorded by Grigore Cobalcescu, the creator of Romania’s school of geology.

Photo credit: (c) Cristian NISTOR / AGERPRES ARCHIVE

‘Scientist Grigore Cobalcescu explained the genesis of the mud volcanoes as the outcome of the combination of underground waters and natural gas, which by expanding to the surface dissolve rocks, turning them into a muddy paste. Once reaching the surface, the mixture creates some cone shapes, wherefrom the name volcanoes,’ explains publicist Horia Baescu.

Photo credit: (c) Bogdan DUMITRESCU / AGERPRES ARCHIVE

In the Berca area, there are three distinct groups of mud volcanoes: the mud volcanoes south of the anticline, 100 m east of the village; the mud volcanoes of northern Pacle, known as Paclele Mici, located on the plateau south of the Paclele Hill, at the border between the communes of Berca and Scortoasa, and a third group of mud volcanoes south of Beciu village, Scortoasa Commune, known as Paclele Mari. The outer structure on the plateau of the mud volcanoes is made up of clay and marl rich in salts. The plateaus are peppered by open cones and craters which sizes vary between some centimetres to some metres. Slightly inclined slopes are on the edges of the plateaus that were formed by flowing water erosion inside the volcanic mud that generates narrow trenches up to seven meters deep. On the Paclele Mici plateau, the cones of the main volcanoes have no relief, but instead they have craters of between two and five metres wide. Also on this plateau, there are secondary craters of smaller sizes that create subsequent cones. When there is abundant precipitation, the eruption of the local volcanoes increases, generating mud torrents that flow mainly to the southern part.

Photo credit: (c) Bogdan DUMITRESCU / AGERPRES ARCHIVE

On the plateaus of the Mud Volcanoes made from mud accretion, saline efflorescence raises during drought times as a result of salt crystallisation following the evaporation of water from the mud spewed up during eruption. The almost Moon-like look of the mud plateau is very eerie because there is no vegetation and because of the whitish yellow colour of the dry mud resulting from polygonal shapes upon drying and especially because of the cones that dominate the plateau through which the erupting mud escapes. The apocalyptic landscape is completed by the continual blubbering of the craters. The areas where the mud volcanoes are highly active become in time deserted clay plateaus called ‘bad earths.’

Photo credit: (c) Bogdan DUMITRESCU / AGERPRES ARCHIVE

The Mud Volcanoes plateaus have more surprises, particularly for botanists. On the edges of the mud fields interesting halophytes, plants that grow in waters of high salinity, grow. Two endemic shrubs declared natural monuments have been developing here for a long time: the Nitre Bush (Nitraria schoberri) and the Halimione (Obione verrucifera). The local fauna includes two rare species: the scorpion and the termite. Highly important geologically and botanically, the Mud Volcanoes natural reserve has a high tourist potential because of its uniqueness. A similar geological formation is found in Georgia, near Baku.

Photo credit: (c) Bogdan BĂRBULESCU / AGERPRES ARCHIVE

The Moon-like area of Paclele Mari and Paclele Mici is visited by nearly 15,000-20,000 tourists a year, record figures from the previous years when the access way was impossible to travel. Dumitru Rosu, the custodian of the natural reserve, says the Moonlike landscape attracts tourists of all ages, but children are the most enchanted. Many video clips have been shot at the Mud Volcanoes. The natural plateau of the Mud Volcanoes has been the shooting place for tens of TV ads, video clips of famous singers, pictorials and artistic pictures as well as settings of famous movies. The custodian of the Mud Volcanoes natural reserve says he has witnessed many stars at work here surrounded by film crews. AGERPRES