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  The Berca Mud Volcanoes  

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Uploaded: 04/04/08 8:22 PM GMT
The Berca Mud Volcanoes
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The Berca Mud Volcanoes are a geological and botanical reservation located in the Berca commune in the Buzău County in Romania. Its most spectacular feature is the mud volcanoes, small volcano-shaped structures typically a few meters high caused by the eruption of mud and volcanic gases. As the gasses erupt from 3000 meters-deep towards the surface, through the underground layers of clay and water, they push up underground salty water and mud, so that they overflow through the mouths of the volcanoes, while the gas emerges as bubbles. The mud dries off at the surface, creating a relatively solid conical structure, resembling a real volcano. The mud expelled by them is cold, as it comes from inside the Earth's continental crust layers, and not from the mantle. The reservation is unique in Romania. Elsewhere in Europe, similar phenomena can be observed in Italy (northern Apennines and Sicily), Ukraine (in the Kerch Peninsula), as well as Azerbaijan. The mud volcanoes create a strange lunar landscape, due to the absence of vegetation around the cones. Vegetation is scarce because the soil is very salty, an environmental condition in which few plants can survive. However, this kind of environment is good for some rare species of plants, such as Nitraria schoberi and Obione verrucifera. The phenomenon can be observed on two separate locations near the Berca commune, dubbed the Little Mud Volcanoes and The Big Mud Volcanoes.

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::0930_23
04/04/08 9:48 PM GMT
Good photo Padre. Lots of information which is good. I would like to see photo of the species of plants of which you speak. I think you probably had that in mind anyway, but I just wanted to check. Look forward to more. This almost looks like a macro until you look at if for awhile. Good work.

Tick
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I'll meet you at the edge of the sunlight, just behind the shadows. The Ghost
.89037
04/05/08 8:35 AM GMT
Excellent shot!...interesting informations!!...Thanks for sharing!!...Foarte faina poza!Bravo, Daniel!
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Adriana....:)
.Allee
04/06/08 11:07 PM GMT
Hi Padre---Who ever said, there is no beauty in mud--- Boy did you prove them all wrong! Nice shot. ~ALLEE~
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::tigger3
04/07/08 12:33 AM GMT
Your image of this is excellent and the informative narrative was wonderful. ♫ sandi
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Nature in all her glory is my uplift on life.
::maker
11/01/08 1:14 AM GMT
Great moody shot! Also love the fact that you included so much geological information. Nicely done.
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.rotcivski
01/14/11 1:53 AM GMT
Great photo and thanks for the narrative.
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