Scarisoara Glacier Cave

Did you know that Romania has the second largest underground glacier in the World? The Glacier in the Scarisoara Cave is located in the Apuseni Mountains in Romania, at the altitude of 1165 meters and the oldest ice set at the base of the block is over 3,000 years old! Thus in the ice block is stored a giant encyclopedia of the scientific data related to plants, animals and climate evolution.

It is considered a show cave and one of the natural wonders of Romania and because it houses an underground glacier it has also been described as a glacier cave.

Hidden deep in the forests of the Apuseni Mountains, this giant ice block is one of the oldest on the Planet.

Radiocarbon dating indicated that the glaciers at Scarisoara are at least 10,500 years old, making them the oldest cave glaciers on Earth outside of the polar zones.

The ice samples extracted from the Scarisoara Cave Glacier in Romania offer new evidence of how the weather and the winter climate in Europe have fluctuated over the last 10,000 years, a period known as Holocene.
Scientists are excited about the ice nuclei extracted from the glacier possibly providing important information about climate change over the past 10,000 years, during the Holocene period. Researchers say the discovery could reveal how the climate in the North Atlantic region has changed.

The cave is 120 m (390 ft) deep and 720 m (2,360 ft) long. The entrance shaft, which is 60 m (200 ft) in diameter and 50 m (160 ft) in depth, gives access through metal stairs to a large chamber, the Great Hall, which is approximately 108 m (354 ft) long and 78 m (256 ft) wide. The Great Hall includes an ice cliff nearly 18 m (59 ft) tall, which overlooks a pool called the Pool of Ice.

The ice within the cave has an estimated volume of 75,000 cubic metres (98,000 cubic yards) and in some places can be as thick as 20 m (66 ft). The temperature is up to +1 °C in the summer and down to -7 °C in the winter. In the part for tourists the average temperature is around 0 °C.

Do you like Scarisoara Cave? Read an article about Bear’s Cave , one of the most visited attractions in Romania