The Interplay Between Air Temperature and Ice Mass Balance Changes in Scarisoara Ice Cave, Romania

This paper examines the short-term relations established between external and cave air temperature in Scărişoara Ice Cave (Romania) and the role they play upon ice genesis and mass balance changes. Geothermal heat and external climate are the main drivers of the cave’s air temperature, but the ice forming and ablation processes modulate its spatial and temporal characteristics. In the winter half-year, cold air inflow leads to the overcooling of the cave atmosphere and walls and ice formation; while in summer, melting of ice acts as strong thermal sink, keeping the air temperature at 0 °C. In autumn and winter, dynamic cooling of the cave atmosphere leads to ice build-up, whereas in summer, the causality is overturned, the cave air temperature being controlled by the melting ice. The existence of a net heat sink in the cave (melting ice in summer in this case), leads to the overcooling of the non-glaciated parts of the cave as well, a phenomenon that can hamper paleoclimatic reconstructions based on stable isotope studies in speleothems

New data concerning the Late Quaternary drainage evolution on the Someş River alluvial fan

The study area is located in the north-eastern part of the Pannonian Basin, on the romanian teritory, with a surface of over 3,600 square kilometers. With elevations of 20-30 m above the Timiş and Criş plains, is the highest low-western romanian plains (100 – 160 m absolute altitudes), the surface extending on both sides of Someş River. This study aims to report new information on Late Quaternary evolution of fluvial discharge on the surface of Someş alluvial fan.Numerous relict fluvial morphologies were recognized on the surface ofSomeşRiveralluvial Plain, by analyzing mainly the fluvial morphologies visible on the second austro-hungarian military maps (reference moment: ca. 1860), and on recent ortophotoplans (reference moment: 2005). The identified palaeochannel types (braided, meandering) and morphometry (large scale meanders vs. small scale meanders), the concentration of these relict features on distinct palaeodrainage directions, the relation of them with the recent fluvial drainage of the area (intersected, partly/ totally used by present day misfit channels), suggest a complex Late Quaternary history of the lower course ofSomeşRiver. </p