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GEOLOGICAL AND PALEONTOLOGICAL HERITAGE OF THE MOLDAVIAN PLATFORM, NE ROMANIA

Andrei Briceag, Mihaela Melinte‐Dobrinescu, Antoneta Seghedi, Iulian Pojar, Eliza Anton

Abstract

The Moldavian Platform represents the south-west margin of the East European Platform. To the south, the Moldavian Platform is bordered by the Scythian Platform and to the west by the Carpathians. The Moldavian Platform encloses many geological and paleontological sites of high scientific value, being well known for the Middle Miocene wide exposures, represented by the Paratethys stage Sarmatian. In this study, we present the geological and paleontological heritage of 6 natural reserves from the Moldavian Platform, by characterizing the state of their protection and anthropogenic and natural threats. Most of these natural reserves comprise Sarmatian macro- and microfaunas. From the selected geoheritage, three sites are of category IV IUCN (geological and botanical) and three are III IUCN (natural monuments). Most of the sites, characterized by the deposition of hemipelagic deposits that contain unique Sarmatian macro- and microfauna with endemic taxa, are accessible and could be easily damaged by casual fossil collecting. Additionally, there are many outcrops where the risk of vegetation cover is very high. Thereby, for these natural reserves we focused on the scientific value, the potential educational use, the potential touristic practice and the degradation risk. Based on the available information obtained during field campaigns, an analysis with the main features and spatial configuration of the geoheritage was developed, allowing designating the most appropriate use for each geological site.

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DOI resolver: doi.org/10.5593/sgem2021/1.1/s01.006

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