The Muddy Volcanoes or "Vulcanii noroioși" in romanian, are a geological and botanical reservation located in Scorțoasa commune close to Berca in Buzău County in Romania.
The geological phenomenon:
As the gases erupt from 3000 metters 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.
Gases: There are several sites (the main tourist sites being Pâclele Mari and Pâclele Mici), and gas analysis shows that the composition varies from site to site, but is mainly methane, with approximately 2% carbon dioxide, and 2-15% nitrogen.
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 as these plants can survive the high salt levels in the soil.
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