VULNERABILITY OF DIAPIRIC REGIONS UNDER THE IMPACT OF ANTHROPIC ACTIVITIES. CASE STUDIES IN ZAKARPATTIA (UA) AND THE TRANSYLVANIA DEPRESSION (RO).

The rock-salt deposits of the Transylvanian Depression (Praid, Sovata, Turda, Ocna Mureş, Ocna Dejului, Sic, Cojocna, Sărăţeni, Jabeniţa, Ideciu) and the Maramureş Depression (Zakarpattia region, Solotvino) have been known from times long past, since the exploitations done by the Agatyrsos, the Dacians and the Romans. Salt mining in Transylvania was stopped in the first half of the 20th century, due to reasons of economic efficiency: Sic (1822), Ocna Sibiului (1932), Sovata, Cojocna (1852), Jabeniţa, Ideciu etc. Solotvino declined after 1998 as well, in the absence of a ferm demand for salt on the Ukrainian market. The abandonment of the exploitation resulted in mine flooding and in 2013 the first consequences became visible, through collapses in the perimeter of mine shaft 1, endangering the inhabited neighbourhoods from the west part of Solotvino. In Transylvania, Ocna Mureş was affected by similar hazards in the winter of 2010 (December 22-25), due to the increasing vulnerability of the ancient Roman salt mines to the flooding of the Mureş river. The floods occurred both naturally and artificially (starting from 1978). The methodology used in this paper consisted in identifying the vulnerable perimeters of the diapiric areas to anthropic activities (urban constructions, road and railway infrastructure), the analysis of the intensity and frequency of collapse processes, the evaluation of the vulnerability and generation of vulnerability maps, estimation of collapse risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]