Cave sediments and tectonic movements: records in gypsum karst of the Prut River valley

Abstract

The allochthonous cave sediments usually contain different paleogeographical records. The most common records are sediments, pollen, bone remains, and paleomagnetic records. We studied the section of cave sediments in Zolushka Cave.

Zolushka (Popeliuszka, Emil Racoviţă) Cave is a huge maze in Miocene gypsum, 92 km long, in the border zone between Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova, on the right bank of the Prut River valley. Tectonically it is situated on the eastern edge of the Novoselytsia tectonic depression. The territory has a block structure and consists of a series of different size blocs at different elevations.