THE STONE GARDEN
In the northeast area of Baia Sprie, known as Ciurca Veche, on a relatively flattened terrain, there is an accumulation of large volcanoclastic rock blocks, reaching heights of up to 15 meters. Locals have named the area “Țuranii,” visitors call it “The Garden of Giants,” and on tourist maps it appears as “The Stone Garden.”
The volcanic rocks that make up these megablocks are exclusively represented by breccias associated with the collapse of a volcanic dome, whose original location is difficult to identify today. From a petrographic point of view, the rocks are microporphyritic pyroxene andesites and slightly glassy pyroxene basaltic andesites, with an estimated age of approximately 10.3 million years.
It can be hypothesized that these rocks were associated with an extrusive volcanic phase involving the formation of a dome, which collapsed either during its formation or shortly thereafter, and was located somewhere within the area currently occupied by these rocks. That dome was most likely part of the complex volcanic structure of Mogoșa. This geological site offers one of the few locations in the Gutâi Volcanic Zone where a special type of breccia formed by the collapse of a volcanic dome can be observed in an accessible setting.