In Scorțoasa commune, near Berca, a geological and botanical reserve protects the mud volcanoes. You can see them in two places: Pâclele Mici, the Little Mud Volcanoes, and Pâclele Mari, the Big Mud Volcanoes, surrounded by water-cut ravines.
Natural gas rising from deep underground passes through a layer of clay and pushes water mixed with clay up to the surface. The cold mud dries in the air, building small cones and craters where it bubbles, in an almost lunar landscape.
The very salty soil lets few plants grow, but it suits some rare species that can cope with salt, such as Nitraria schoberi and Obione verrucifera.
