DACIAN BASIN - GeoEcoMar

Chapter 1
DACIAN BASIN. gENERAL BACkgROUND
1.1. PRESENT-DAY AND PALEOgEOgRAPHIC SETTINg
Tectonic setting is one of the main factors which determine the sedimentary development
of a basin. The distance to high relief continental areas is a major factor controlling
the supply of clastic sediment to basins. The connection with a marine water body
establishes the base level for the acumulation processes of the sedimentary basin.
The name Dacian Basin (Bazin Dacic in the Romanian language) comes from
Andrusov (1917). As evidenced by Marinescu (1978), N. Andrusov applied this
name only to the southern and western part of the area called today the Dacian
Basin. The area northward of Buzău River was attached to the Euxinian Basin.
It was only several decades later that the name Dacian Basin was introduced
into the Romanian geological terminology. Its position was consolidated through
a long time of stratigraphic and paleontologic investigations conducted by I. C.
Motaş, Emilia Saulea, N. Macarovici, F. Marinescu, Ioana Pană, I. Papaianopol, I. Andreescu,
R. Olteanu and many other scientists.
Presently the name Dacian Basin refers to the area which extends from the foot
of the Southern Carpathians and of the Eastern Carpathians bend zone (Fig.1.1), to
the present course of the modern Lower Danube River. The arc-shaped mountains
at the connection between the Carpathians and the Balkans formed the western
boundary of the Basin. The Dobrogean high limited the eastern extension of the
Dacian Basin and restricted communication with the Black Sea Basin.
Almost the entire Dacian Basin area is included within the present-day south-eastern
territory of Romania. During later evolutionary stages the Dacian Basin extended
south of the present location of the Danube River in the northern part of Bulgaria and
the northeastern Serbia.
Dacian Basin sediments crop out in the area close to the Carpathians (Fig. 1.2).
The central and outer (in rapport with the Carpathians) parts of the basin are covered
with Quaternary deposits. This establishes the main lines of the basin investi-
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