A trip to the Muddy Volcanoes

In Buzau, on the hills at Berca, nature forms a fascinating landscape in its purest form, almost as seen from the Moon. In a desert area, the barren soil hides in its womb a form of life unknown to us, but whose signs we can see flaring up at the surface. The sun rays have created white and yellow dunes on this land, which become grey when it rains. At Paclele Mari and Mici, in an almost undisturbed and continuously changing habitat, there lie the Muddy Volcanoes, a natural monument ever since 1924. In Romania, the most well-known volcanoes are the ones at Berca, on the loamy plateaus of Quaternary age, also known as the 'sludge volcanoes' or 'ground fogs'.

The 'Muddy Volcanoes' Geological Reservation

Access to the muddy volcanoes is done 18 kilometers from Buzau, from Satuc village. From here, the road crosses the bridge over the Buzau River, goes through Joseni and Policiori villages, revealing picturesque sub-Carpathian landscapes. The mountain air in the Carpathian curvature rapidly takes hold of the villages and the hills; the surroundings offer you peace and relaxation, giving you the feeling that you have stepped into another world. In the middle of the rich vegetation, the dry ground, ploughed by ditches looks like a dragon’s skin. At the surface of the small volcanoes, the soil splutters slowly, throwing the muddy volcanic lava in the air. At the Muddy Volcanoes, you will not see impressive craters, or the hot and reddish lava covering the ground. Along 30 hectares, the geological reservation shelters very small volcanoes, which is a very spectacular and rare phenomenon in the world. The high-pitched knobs, where the grey paste slowly simmers, make up a strange, memorable scenery, worthy of a science fiction movie.

The Muddy Volcanoes are different from the real ones because of the eruption products, their shapes and dimensions. They appear from the eruption of natural gases, earthquakes or post volcanic emanations. At Buzau, they appear from gas emanations in the folded and fissured areas that bring mud to the surface. The depths splash the overly curious tourists with a clingy white-grey or brown-neutral composite that comes from the dissolution of the marls and clays located at over 3,000 meters underground. Once, the volcanoes used to splash with water, like geysers, but now their activity is like that of some caldrons stirred by natural gases.

There is also a very beautiful legend about this place. It is said that during the times of Mihnea the Third there used to be a dragon in the area which is nowadays called Berca. The moment it started to sear the land and steal the villagers’ assets, they complained about this to Mihnea’s wife, lady Neaga. They thought that only her son, Arbanas, could defeat the dragon. Wanting to measure his strengths with such a creature, the young man set out for the hill where the dragon was sleeping. The brave lad, in his wish to get rid of the unmerciful creature, cut two of its seven heads. Trying in vain to defend itself from brave Arbanas, the dragon hid into a hole and remained there forever, being afraid to get out. No grass has ever grown near the hole and the earth is ploughed by cracks. The legend says that the dry soil is the dragon’s skin and that through its simmering eyes the dragon’s cursed blood comes out.

Article from http://www.romania-travel-guide.com/en/attractions/nature/vulcanii-noroiosi.html

Pictures bellow I took them on two different visits on the Muddy Volcanoes. First 3 photographs are on film, taken with a Nikon f90x and 105mm Nikkor AIS f2.5, BW and Positive Film, Agfa Vista.