# When Romania's last volcano erupted, people had already reached this land https://mariuscomper.uk/romania-in-timp/en/ Pick your town and go down beneath it through time, layer by layer: stones that fell from the sky, ice in the Apuseni, the cave bear, the volcano, the man from Oase, a lake the size of a sea, the island of the dinosaurs. Down to where the ground beneath you lay hundreds of kilometres further south. The column on the left is the core: a cylinder like the ones drills bring up, but made of time. The deeper you go, the more time a centimetre of it holds. 144 years ago ## Stones on the snow The first layer is thin. On 3 February 1882, a Friday, at 15:45, a fireball crossed the sky over Cluj and broke apart above the villages around Mociu, 309 km from București. The stones fell on snow. A professor weighed them soon after the fall. The page on the stone shower also shows how the weight of the big stone went wrong along the way, in an American paper of 1961. [The Mociu stone rain, 3 February 1882: the map, the stones, the museums](https://mariuscomper.uk/ploaia-de-pietre/en/) about 810 years ago ## The oldest dated oak We go down a few centuries. The Cajvana oak, 364 km from București, would have sprouted around the year 1200. Radiocarbon dating, plus an estimate of the wood missing from the middle of the trunk, gives it about 810 years. The famous “Old Man of the Carpathians” at Mercheașa is 900 years old in the papers and about 560 by radiocarbon. The ages in the papers do not always survive the lab. [The “Old Man of the Carpathians” is 900 years old in the papers and about 560 by radiocarbon dating. The oldest dated oak in Romania stands 190 kilometres to the north.](https://mariuscomper.uk/cei-mai-batrani-arbori/en/) 9,300 years ago ## The sea that was a lake 9,300 years ago, the Black Sea, which today reaches Constanța, 203 km from București, was a freshwater lake cut off from the ocean. One team calculated that once the sill gave way, it was all over within 40 years at most. That is one team's verdict, not the end of the argument: other teams read the same seabed differently, and the page on Romania 20,000 years ago puts the arrival of salt water at about 8,400 years. Today the sea has two floors. Below 100–150 metres the water has no oxygen at all, and it keeps the wood of ships for thousands of years: the oldest intact wreck known is at least 2,400 years old. [The Black Sea has two floors. Nothing downstairs breathes oxygen](https://mariuscomper.uk/marea-neagra-doua-etaje/en/) [Romania, 20,000 Years Ago](https://mariuscomper.uk/acum-20000-de-ani/en/) at least 10,500 years ago ## The ice that remembers winters In Scărișoara Cave, 344 km from București, lies a block of ice of about 100,000 cubic metres. In 2003 a 22.53-metre core went through it to the bedrock. Its base is at least about 10,500 years old; a 1980 guidebook said 3,500. The 10,500 years are the modelled age of the base, not an exactly dated annual layer. The ice kept an archive of winters: the mildest were about 7,000–5,000 years ago. Between May and July 2019 about 1,050 cubic metres of it melted. [Scărișoara ice cave: ice at least 10,500 years old](https://mariuscomper.uk/ghetarul-de-la-scarisoara/en/) 20,000 years ago ## The cold steppe 20,000 years ago the plains were cold steppe with elements of tundra, swept by wind and covered in the dust that became the loess of the Bărăgan and Dobruja. In the Retezat, the glaciers had reached their largest extent about 21,000 years ago. The Black Sea was a lake about 105 metres below today's level. Near Piatra Neamț, at Poiana Cireșului, hunters left a bone flute in their camp. [Romania, 20,000 Years Ago](https://mariuscomper.uk/acum-20000-de-ani/en/) 26,100–24,300 years ago ## The giant that ate plants Across Europe, the cave bear dies out 26,100–24,300 years ago, according to more than 200 dates. Males weighed 400–500 kilograms. The bones of six bears from the Carpathians, 28,000–48,000 years old, say they ate plants; they do not say which. At Chișcău, 365 km from București, the guides tell of bears trapped in the cave 15,000 years ago. The excavations make the bears there more than 10,000 years older than the story. [The cave bear: the half-tonne giant that ate only plants](https://mariuscomper.uk/ursul-din-pestera/en/) 27,000–32,000 years ago ## The last eruption In the core, this is where the ash goes. Ciomadul, the last volcano to erupt on what is now Romania, 189 km from București, last erupted 27,000–32,000 years ago. “30,000” is a rounding of a range. “Extinct” is only a convention for a volcano that has not erupted for more than 10,000 years. Under the crater, the instruments point to partly molten rock, with at least 5–15 per cent melt. The studies do not point to an imminent eruption, and none of them can predict one. [Ciomadul, Romania’s “extinct” volcano, to scale](https://mariuscomper.uk/ultimul-vulcan/en/) 40,440 years ago ## People were already here Another ten thousand years down, we meet a person. Oase 1, a man whose remains were found near Anina, 343 km from București, is dated to 40,440 ± 1,030 years ago. He carried 6–9% Neanderthal DNA, from an ancestor who had lived 4–6 generations before him. So the core runs in this order: first the people, then the volcano. As the page on Ciomadul puts it: “When Ciomadul erupted, modern humans had already reached Romania.” The Oase jaw is older than the last eruption by several thousand years. [Oase 1: a Neanderthal ancestor 4–6 generations back](https://mariuscomper.uk/pestera-cu-oase/en/) [Ciomadul, Romania’s “extinct” volcano, to scale](https://mariuscomper.uk/ultimul-vulcan/en/) 2,500,000 years ago ## The sealed cave Now we jump a long way. Near Mangalia, 209 km from București, clay and loess covered the limestone that holds Movile Cave, 2.5 million years ago, and the cave was left with no natural entrance. Fifty-two species of invertebrates live in it, 37 of them found only in the cave and its aquifer, fed by microbes that draw energy from sulfur and methane. Our species is about 300,000 years old: the seal is more than eight times older than we are. [The cave that lives without the sun](https://mariuscomper.uk/pestera-movile/en/) about 3.2 million years ago ## The trunks near you The oldest securely dated mammoth remains in Europe come from Tulucești (Galați) and Cernătești (Dolj): about 3.2 million years. The underlying study could not be consulted, and no radiocarbon date was found for any mammoth from Romania. On the elephant page's map, the find closest to București is Colentina (now a Bucharest district), 5 km away: “Elephas antiquus”, variety ausonius (1924 identification). Behind it is a paper or a database. It may be far younger than this layer: the finds on the map run from the Miocene to the ice age. [Elephants, mammoths and deinotheres in Romania: what was found in your county](https://mariuscomper.uk/elefanti-in-romania/en/) 11.6 million years ago ## The largest lake About 11.6 million years ago the last straits closed and Paratethys was left as a lake of 2.8 million square kilometres, a little larger than today's Mediterranean. On the published map of its highest level, laid over today's, the lake covers about 81.5% of Romania. From Miocene layers too, millions of years old, comes the mud at Berca, 110 km from București. Methane pushes it up from about 3,000 metres down. It looks as if it were boiling, but it is cold. [The Sea That Vanished](https://mariuscomper.uk/marea-care-a-disparut/en/) [The Berca mud volcanoes: why they are not volcanoes](https://mariuscomper.uk/vulcanii-care-nu-sunt-vulcani/en/) 70 million years ago ## The island of dwarf dinosaurs At Sânpetru, in the Sibișel valley, 280 km from București, bones stick out of the valley banks. 70 million years ago the place was on an island at 27–28° north, roughly the latitude of today's Canary Islands. An adult long-necked dinosaur there weighed less than a tonne. Above the dinosaurs flew a reptile with wings estimated at 10–12 metres from tip to tip. For some of them researchers disagree: perhaps their ancestors were already small, and the island only kept them that way. [The dinosaurs of Romania: Hațeg Island, to scale](https://mariuscomper.uk/dinozaurii-romaniei/en/) 100 million years ago ## Your town was not here Here the core parts company with the map. The ground under București, today at 44.4° N, lay 100 million years ago between 29.6° and 37.6° N: 760–1,650 km further south. Roughly the latitude of Cairo and Athens today. All the numbers come from three published models, and each puts Romania somewhere else. The decimals do not show how well we know the past position. But all three take you south. [Where was your town 100 million years ago?](https://mariuscomper.uk/unde-era-orasul-tau/en/) 200 million years ago ## The footprints at Anina Almost at the bottom. In a quarry at Colonia Cehă, near Anina, a 2009 study reports sauropod footprints from the Hettangian, at the start of the Jurassic. Further down the models drift even further apart: at 200 million years, București is at 20.9° N according to Müller and at 41.9° N according to Merdith. The core stops here. [The dinosaurs of Romania: Hațeg Island, to scale](https://mariuscomper.uk/dinozaurii-romaniei/en/) [Where was your town 100 million years ago?](https://mariuscomper.uk/unde-era-orasul-tau/en/) ## The only layer you can touch Every layer of the core is far away: in museums, in caves, under the sea, in computer models. Only one is still growing, at the surface. The thickest tree in the register of remarkable trees around București is a poplar at Clinceni, its trunk 6.90 m round, 13 km away. Volunteers measured its trunk with a tape, last in 2023; nobody has dated its age. If it is still standing, go and see it. Of the whole core, it is the only layer that may still be growing. [The “Old Man of the Carpathians” is 900 years old in the papers and about 560 by radiocarbon dating. The oldest dated oak in Romania stands 190 kilometres to the north.](https://mariuscomper.uk/cei-mai-batrani-arbori/en/) ## Further Behind every layer of the core there is a whole page. Start anywhere. - [Where was your town 100 million years ago?](https://mariuscomper.uk/unde-era-orasul-tau/en/) — Pick a Romanian place and wind time back 250 million years. - [The dinosaurs of Romania: Hațeg Island, to scale](https://mariuscomper.uk/dinozaurii-romaniei/en/) — Seventy million years ago Hațeg was an island. - [Elephants, mammoths and deinotheres in Romania: what was found in your county](https://mariuscomper.uk/elefanti-in-romania/en/) — Bones, teeth and tusks of mammoths, mastodons and deinotheres have been found in 23 of the 41 counties. - [Ciomadul, Romania’s “extinct” volcano, to scale](https://mariuscomper.uk/ultimul-vulcan/en/) — Ciomadul last erupted 27,000–32,000 years ago, and “extinct” only means 10,000 quiet years. - [Oase 1: a Neanderthal ancestor 4–6 generations back](https://mariuscomper.uk/pestera-cu-oase/en/) — The remains of a man from about 40,000 years ago, found near Anina: 6–9% Neanderthal DNA from an ancestor 4–6 generations back. - [The cave bear: the half-tonne giant that ate only plants](https://mariuscomper.uk/ursul-din-pestera/en/) — Males weighed 400–500 kilograms and stood, by one press summary, 1.7 metres at the shoulder, and their bones say they ate only plants. - [Scărișoara ice cave: ice at least 10,500 years old](https://mariuscomper.uk/ghetarul-de-la-scarisoara/en/) — A 1980 guidebook popularised 3,500 years; the 2017 research puts the minimum age at about 10,500. - [The Black Sea has two floors. Nothing downstairs breathes oxygen](https://mariuscomper.uk/marea-neagra-doua-etaje/en/) — The top 50 metres hold oxygen. - [The cave that lives without the sun](https://mariuscomper.uk/pestera-movile/en/) — Under a field near Mangalia, a cave with no natural entrance feeds 52 invertebrate species on sulfur and methane, sealed for 2.5 million years. - [The Berca mud volcanoes: why they are not volcanoes](https://mariuscomper.uk/vulcanii-care-nu-sunt-vulcani/en/) — At Pâclele, cones a few metres high spit cold mud pushed by methane from 3,000 metres down. - [The Mociu stone rain, 3 February 1882: the map, the stones, the museums](https://mariuscomper.uk/ploaia-de-pietre/en/) — One Friday in February 1882, a fireball broke into thousands of pieces above a few villages in Cluj, and the stones came down on snow. - [The “Old Man of the Carpathians” is 900 years old in the papers and about 560 by radiocarbon dating. The oldest dated oak in Romania stands 190 kilometres to the north.](https://mariuscomper.uk/cei-mai-batrani-arbori/en/) — A map of Romania's oldest trees: 5,703 measured ancient trees with species, girth, county and indicative age, the four radiocarbon-dated oaks and three other dated trees, and the centuries-old tree nearest to you. - [The Sea That Vanished](https://mariuscomper.uk/marea-care-a-disparut/en/) — Paratethys, the sea shut in between the Alps and Central Asia, became the largest lake in Earth's history about 11.6 million years ago: 2.8 million square kilometres. - [Romania, 20,000 Years Ago](https://mariuscomper.uk/acum-20000-de-ani/en/) — A geological clock from the Last Glacial Maximum to today: the Black Sea was a lake 105 metres lower, the shore lay 87 kilometres from Constanța, the Danube ran another 210 kilometres across the exposed shelf, and glaciers came down the Retezat. - [Can you get DNA out of a beetle trapped in amber?](https://mariuscomper.uk/ambra-de-la-colti/en/) — At Colți, in Buzău, people dig amber with insects millions of years old out of the ground. - [Discoveries near you — Beneath your feet](https://mariuscomper.uk/sub-picioarele-tale/en/) — Choose a Romanian town or village to find archaeological discoveries recorded within 1, 5 and 10 km of its reference point. ## How the core was made The layers of the core come from 14 pages on mariuscomper.uk; the shelf adds two related ones. From each I extracted the quotations, figures and caveats, and the text here is written only from them, apart from what the page computes for your town (the distances, the nearest find and tree) and the comparison with today's cities. The titles and summaries on the shelf are the pages' own. It is a core of time, not of rock: the Hațeg bones and the Scărișoara ice do not lie under your town. Each layer sits at the depth of its age on a logarithmic scale: the first centimetre holds a century, the last tens of millions of years. Distances to places are straight lines from the centre of your town. The past latitude comes from the three plate models used by the page “Where was your town”: Müller, PALEOMAP (Scotese) and Merdith. The comparison with today's cities is ours. The nearest find of trunked animals comes from the map on the elephants page; the tree, from the register of remarkable trees used by the page on the oldest trees: the thickest within 15 km (30, 60 or 200 km if there is none closer). The location guessed from your network comes from Cloudflare, which infers it from your address; the page only uses it to pick the nearest locality and does not keep it. Published 27 September 2026. [mariuscomper.uk](https://mariuscomper.uk/) · Marius Comper