The Unique Granite Gorge in Mountainous Adygeya, Russia: Evidence of Big and Complex Geosite Disproportions

Abstract

Geological heritage sites (geosites) are subject to conservation and exploitation for science, education, and tourism. Some geosites are big and comprise diverse phenomena. Concentration of the latter in some parts of these geosites makes them disproportionate. A typical example is the Granite Gorge in SW Russia that is of recognizable tourism importance. It stretches for ~5 km and represents a deep valley of the Belaya River and Late Paleozoic granitoids of the Dakh Crystalline Massif. However, the full spectrum of unique features is much wider. Their inventory permits the establishment of geomorphological, igneous, metamorphic, sedimentary, mineralogical, paleogeographical, tectonic, economic, engineering, and hydrological and hydrogeological types of geological heritage. Spatial distribution of these types and the relevant features indicates their significant concentration near the northern entrance to the gorge and a less important concentration near the southern entrance. This is evidence of geosite disproportion. Apparently, the latter implies the need to focus geoconservation and geotourism activities on the noted loci of concentration. However, this would ’disrupt’ the geosite integrity, and, thus, management of the Granite Gorge geosite requires attention to all its parts, including those with lower heritage value.

Islands in the Caucasian Sea in Three Mesozoic Time Slices: Novel Dimension of Geoheritage and Geotourism

“…Some interesting and very rare mineral assemblage and highly specific rodingite rock are also found there. As a result, this locality represents, at least, four geoheritage types (palaeogeographical, metamorphic, mineralogical, and igneous-see Mikhailenko et al [60] for more details), which indicates its significant complexity. The cohesion of the Lipovy geoheritage point to the Granite Gorge geosite is moderate.…”

“…This is a geoheritage point of a larger, linear geosite, namely, the Granite Gorge. The latter was characterized comprehensively by Karpunin et al [59], Mikhailenko et al [60], and Ruban et al [26], and it is famous for lengthy exposures of granitoids, metamorphic formations, and a deep river incision. The Lipovy geoheritage point is very small in size and marks the very northern edge of this geosite.…”

How Can a Complex Geosite Be Enhanced? A Landscape-Scale Approach to the Deep-Seated Gravitational Slope Deformation of Pointe Leysser (Aosta Valley, NW Italy)

“…The third feature characterising geomorphosites according to Coratza and Hoblèa (2018) is multiscalarity because dm-dimension to km-dimension landforms may coexist, in some cases nested with each other. In some cases, a landscape-scale site may be labelled a complex geosite (sensu Mikhailenko et al 2019), including other types of geosites, not geomorphological, which are even more valuable in terms of geodiversity (sensu Gray 2004). The presence of different-scale sublandforms was specifically investigated for gravity-related landmarks by Margielewski and Alexandrowicz (2004), including the large-scale features, slope-scale landforms (e.g.…”

“…Regardless, in several contexts, individual geosites are not sufficient to tell the story, including in a single-type movement landslide such as this, as argued by Migoń and Różycka (2021). For example, in the case of landslides, whether or not they are geosites, their activity can affect the landscape at the valley scale (sometimes at the channel network scale; Korup 2005), and it is not enough to consider them as stand-alone landforms (Wang 2015;Bollati et al 2019a;Mikhailenko et al 2019;Stanczyk et al 2019).…”

Geosite Assessment and Communication: A Review

“…In fact, Bruno et al [53], describe paleogeographic geosites as "geological heritage sites that represent paleoenvironments in general or highlight particular paleoenvironmental features, which are of special interest for science, education, or tourism/recreation". Geosites can be as small as a single outcrop or big and complex, such as the unique Granite Gorge in Mountainous Adygeya, Russia [54]. They can be classified in five typological categories: point, section, area, complex area, and viewpoint, as proposed by Fuertes-Gutiérrez & Fernández-Martínez [55].…”