Loess in Bulgaria – Spatial Distribution and History of Research

Gachev, E.¹

¹Institute of Geography, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, ‘Acad. G. Bonchev’ Street, pl. 3, Sofia, Bulgaria

This article provides a brief outlook on the distribution of loess in Bulgaria and gives a short revision of the previous studies of this feature. Loess and loesslike formations cover about 19 thousand km2 of Northern Bulgaria, thus representing not only an important part of country’s geodiversity and natural resources, but also the southernmost spread of loess in Europe. Loess appears as an unevenly wide continuous strip along the Danube river and the state border with Romania from Timok river to the Black sea coast. Strong regional differences are observed from west to east, as well as from north to south – as in the latter direction loess thickness decrease from 80–100 to 1–2 m, four main types of loess features shift – sandy loess, typical loess, clayish loess and loess-like clays.

Bulgarian loess was studied by a number of researchers (geograpgers, geologists, soil scientists), starting from the second quarter of the 20th century. Now new challenges appear in relation to the big importance of loess as a record of environmental changes during the Quaternary. In this aspect there is a need of a new set of loess studies with the application of modern dating methods, which will allow to correlate the obtained results on a regional scale, comparing with those from the other countries along the middle and the lower Danube. Loess studies can be successfully used for calibrating results of glacial features research that is already in advance in Bulgarian highest mountains.

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