摘要：The issue of the latest movements that affected the terrestrial crust, noticed in the 19th century, drew
attention after the 3rd INQUA Congress in 1936. On the whole, these movements were known under the name of
recent tectonics, active tectonics or living tectonics, but the term of neotectonics was generalized afterwards. In
order to define neotectonics, there has been taken into account the temporal factor considered to be the amount
or the assembly of the deformation movements of the crust that appeared after the structural completion of the
morphostructural units. Due to the complexity of the movements (positive, negative, of inversion etc) and to
their effects upon the relief, the temporal criterion (duration of manifestation) is not enough to define
neotectonics. Thus, besides the temporal criterion, there should be also taken into account:
- the spatial grounds (regional) by means of which there can be determined the differences of manifestation
from one unit to another, offering the possibility of comparative studies;
-the functional grounds by means of which there are determined the effects upon the relief (noticed and
evaluated on the basis of geomorphologic methods), pointing to the evolution of the relief.
