RARE OCCURRENCES OF PODZOLS FROM THE CARPATHIANS

The occurrence of a soil type in a certain area may be predicted satisfactorily if the characteristics of the environmental conditions are well known. The accuracy of the prediction is altered - among other things - by the fact that, sometimes, some soils appear in atypical conditions, rarely met. These unexpected occurrences are drawing our attention to the insufficient understanding of the way some factors of soil genesis function and to the role of the hazard in the building of soil covering. For a better understanding of the genesis of the podzols from the Carpathians we are going to present two cases of rare occurrences: podzols on moderate - steep slopes and podzols on limestone. In the Vrancea Mountains (the Eastern Carpathians) we found podzols (on sandstones) on slopes of 20 - 35 %, at 1400 - 1500 m a.s.l; in the Bucegi Mountains (the Meridional Carpathians) we found podzols on limestone, at about 2120 m a.s.l.