Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
Table 12.1 Distribution of climatic stations in high-mountain areas over 2,000 m a. s. l.
Station
Altitude M a. s. l.
Location
Period of operation
Musala peak
2,925
Rila
1933-present
Golemia Kazan
2,450
Pirin
1957-1961
Kalin dam
2,390
Rila
1956-1975
Musala hut
2,389
Rila
1940-1990
Botev peak
2,376
Central Stara planina
1940-present
Cherni vruh
2,290
Vitosha
1935-present
relict glacial landforms in Rila, and Louis ( 1930 , 1933 ) described and analyzed
glacial morphosculpture and planation surfaces in the mountain. S. Leutelt-Kipke
( 1932 ), with a team of students from Innsbruck, made the first bathymetry mapping
of glacial lakes in Rila (Musala lakes) and measured water quality (temperature,
salinity, ion concentration). In the 1950s and 1960s of the past century researches
were carried out by Bulgarian geographers. Ivanov ( 1954 ) and Glovnia ( 1958 , 1961 ,
1962 ) made detailed descriptions and mappings of relict glacial landforms in Rila
massif, Peev studied avalanches in Pirin and mentioned about the existence of a
“firn glacierette” in Bajuvi dupki cirque in the northern part of the mountain (Peev,
1956 ). Vladimir Popov from the Institute of Geography - BAS, carried out a 4-year
monitoring programme of the cirque Golemia Kazan in Pirin (1957-1961) which
was the most prominent study of this type for its time. Along with the detail geo-
morphic mapping, systematic climatic observations were organized in the cirque
and a small building was erected. Popov ( 1962 , 1964 ) was the first to describe and
measure Snezhnika - a perennial snow patch that lies at 2,400-2,450 m a. s. l. He
explained the existence of these embryonic glacial features in Northern Pirin with
the specific lithology (white karstified marbles) and topography (shading by high
vertical rockwalls). In the last decades glacial landforms in Rila were studied by
Velchev ( 1995 , 1999 ), Baltackov and Cherkezova ( 1991 ), Baltackov ( 2004 ), and in
Pirin by Choleev ( 1982 ). All these authors relied on relative dating of relict land-
forms based on geomorphic evidence, standing on the position about the occurrence
of two main glacial stages - Rissian and Würmian. An important contribution to the
issue was the detailed study and mapping of sub-Alpine and Alpine grassy vegeta-
tion in Rila made by Rusakova ( 1986 ), and the palinological researches of peat-bogs
and lake sediments performed by Bozhilova ( 1972 , 1995 ), Bozhilova et al. ( 2002 ),
Bozhilova and Tonkov ( 2000 ), Tonkov and Marinova ( 2005 ), Tonkov et al. ( 2002 ,
2006 ), through which the basic changes of the vegetation in Rila and Pirin during
the Holocene were revealed.
In 1992-1998 a French-Bulgarian project called “OM2” came into force in
Rila mountain. The project comprised plenty of monitoring researches in differ-
ent components and characteristics of environment (radiation background, chemical
contamination, biodiversity, etc). Results were published in the journal “OM2
series”, issued by the Institute of Nuclear Research and Nuclear Energy (INRNE) -
BAS. Main result of the project was the opening in 1999 of the Basic Environmental
 
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