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Types of glacial landforms on Capra Valley (The Fagaras Mountains-Romania)

Alexandru Nedelea and Laura Comanescu

The glacial shaping of mountain areas is accomplished by two processes: exaration (glacial erosion), which produces a series of specific landforms – cirques, glacial troughs, thresholds, shoulders, sheepback rocks, arêtes, saddles etc., and accumulation, which is responsible for moraine formation. Investigations have proven that in Romania the glaciers developed on the torrential catchments lying at the edge of the Borascu planation surface. During the first glacial stage, torrential erosion gradually gave way to the glacial erosion, inasmuch as the abundant snowfalls had led to glacier formation. Under those circumstances, torrential catchments were turned into glacial cirques, while stream valleys became glacial troughs. During interglacial phases, stream erosion returned, but only to cease again with the next glacial stage. The glacial cirques are the main forms of glacial erosion that have survived up to the present. As a matter of fact, they are an irrefutable argument in favor of the existence of a glacial climate in the Fagaras Mts.