| Popis: |
Summary A particular stream catchment, part of which had been subject to karst piracy, was analysed in order to better constrain Late Pliocene tectonic events that had concerned the Mehedinţi Plateau, at the SW bend of the South Carpathians. Several geomorphic metrics (asymmetry factor, swath profiles data) have been used for this evaluation. There was consequently revealed a tectonic tilting process which had induced a gradual lateral shifting of the mainstem course over ~2 km, toward the down-tilted domain. In this way, the concerned streambed has migrated from a thick substratum of impervious rocks, toward rather extensive limestone outcrops, where the surface flow was eventually captured along underground karst conduits. This fluviokarst setting was likely generated no later than ~4 Ma. Subsequently, the considered main valley has been beheaded by incipient rivers which were developing within a newly established continental environment: the latter was installed to the detriment of the rapidly receding Dacian brackish lake, approximately at the transition from the Dacian to the Romanian times. |
