THE LAKES OF THE TRANSYLVANIAN PLAIN: GENESIS, EVOLUTION AND TERRITORIAL REPARTITION

Victor SOROCOVSCHI
“Babes-Bolyai” University, Faculty of Geography Cluj-Napoca, Romania svictor@geografie.ubbcluj.ro

Abstract

This article is concerned with the genesis of the Transylvanian Plain lakes’ basins and their evolution in time and space. Natural lakes in this area are reduced in point of their types of geneses (pseudokarst and lanslide lakes) and number. Their evolution in time is quite fast, especially of the pseudokarst lakes. Among the anthropic lakes, the ponds represent the most frequent genetic type, which gives a particular aspect to the landscape of the Transylvanian Plain. They used to be much more numerous in the past than at present. Those whose dimensions are not significant, situated on the tributaries of the main rivers, have a rapid evolution. The anthropic salt lakes formed following the exploitation of salt in the western area of the country had a fast evolution and they are not numerous today.

Keywords: lake, genesis, evolution, repartition, territory