CRIONIVAL PROCESSES AND THEIR EFFECT ON THE TYPES OF AGRICULTURAL LAND USE IN SILVANIA MOUNTAINS
CORINA BOGDAN1, IOAN AUREL IRIMUȘ1
1Babeș‐Bolyai University, Doctoral School of Geography, 5‐7 Clinicilor Street, Cluj‐Napoca, Romania, e‐mails: bogdan.corina@ymail.com; aurel.irimus@ubbcluj.ro
ABSTRACT. – Crionival Processes and Their Effect on the Types of Agricultural Land Use in Silvania Mountains. Silvania Mountains are a particular geospatial entity within the geomorphological landscape of Silvania, bringing together Plopiș Mountains (Măgura Mare Peak 917 m) and Meseș Mountains (Măgura Pria Peak 996 m) and only comparatively Măgura Şimleului (597m) and Măgura Chilioarei (420 m), taking into account their high degree of erosion, into one family of mountains, forming a boundary of the vast Neogene Șimleu gulf from West to East and North‐East. Between the 15th and 19th centuries, the so‐called Little Ice Age (LIA) was documented for the Northern Hemisphere and in particular for the Silvania Mountains and the surrounding areas (Bihor Mountains) through the identification of fossils belonging to some buffalos, which died during the LIA. The effects of crionival processes on the types of agricultural land use in Silvania Mountains are manifested through freeze‐thaw phenomena and small avalanches in close interrelationship with the climate factor and conditions offered by the adjacent Silvania sublayer.
Keywords: Alpine collisional chain, Little Ice Age LIA, crionival processes, avalanches, Silvania Mountains.