The Belorussian Park of Stones. The institute of Geological Scienses,
NAS of Belarus in the background.
Belorussian Stone Park
The Belorussian Park of Stones. The institute of Geological Scienses,
NAS of Belarus in the background.
Landscapes are permanently changing,
humans eliminate from their point of view, useless landforms - hills, ridges
and similar, regarded as obstacles for people's economic activities. Glacial
boulders are a target of an especially intensive extermination because
they hinder land cultivating, construction of houses, etc. An establishment
of a Stone Park was conditioned by the intensive anthropogenic impact and
thus the threat to these boulders.
Boulders are referred to as relics of glacial
epochs and processes that occurred in the areas of ancient continental
glaciation of Europe. They are character elements of the natural landscapes
of Belarus. During the last 0.8 million years the territory of the country
has been influenced repeatedly by continental glaciations, which left thick
deposits. The glaciers brought a tremendous amount of debris of crystalline
rocks belonging to Archean - Proterozoic complexes of Mid Sweden, Åland
and other Baltic islands, Southern Finland and Karelia. The spectrum of
erupted and metamorphic rocks of mentioned complexes is wide. It includes
granites, granodiorites, diorites, syenites, gabbro, pyroxenites, diabases,
porphyry and porphyrite, gneiss, crystalline shale, amphibolite, quartzite,
etc.
Map over the Stone Park
These rocks compose boulders related
to the last three glaciations. Boulders brought by the Saalian (Dnieper)
Glacier are common in the Southern Belarus. Boulders in the Central and
Northern parts of the Country originate from the Sozh (stage of Dnieper
Glacier) and Weichselian (Poozerie) glacier activities correspondingly.
Study of boulder composition and regularities in their distribution allows
to determine the feeding provinces as well as to obtain more specific information
about the direction of ice flow and the borders of maximum glacial extend.
Investigations allow to find similarities between the relief pattern and
it's origin, as well as to correlate remote geological sections, to specify
the directions of glaciers' motion and limits of their spreading, and to
forecast locations of mineral deposits. The majority of glacial boulders
contain nickel, chromium, cobalt, vanadium, copper, magnesium, titanium
and other microelements. The amount of these elements in boulders are tens
times higher than in surrounding soil. Therefore boulders being as a natural
concentrators enrich the soil with microelements. There are mosses, lichens,
and even algae (some of them belonging to relict species) can be found
on the boulders.
In the early 70´s academician G. Goretsky paid an attention of specialists to the fact that amount of boulders on the surface decreases every year. Moreover the most endangered boulders are those which possess the greatest value in terms of their composition, shape and historical and ethnographic importance. Many people have understood the dramatic state of these specific elements of Belarussian landscapes. Goretsky put forward and stood for an idea on creation of a geological museum in open air. He proposed to preserve the most valuable stones in such a museum. A search expedition was established in the Institute of Geological Sciences in 1977. It was equipped with special machinery (trucks and cranes). The main task set for the expedition was to find, study, select and ship to Minsk the unique glacial boulders. The author was a head of that expedition during six years, being involved immediately in collection of samples. Carrying out this big task met a lot of difficulties, because a job like that had not been done in the country before. First of all the rational search for the interesting objects was organised. In winter time the archive materials and literature related to future objects and areas of investigation were studied. Processing of recent and historical materials on topography allowed to make up preliminary lists of objects of investigation and to narrow the area for search. The oral information from local villagers on the locations of boulders made a good contribution to the data collected. It allowed to study and select some interesting exhibits.
The boulder material is distributed irregularly on the surface. The gatherings of boulders are drawn in general to the frontal moraine landforms, which are the locations of glacier stops. The total volume of surface boulders is approximately equal to 10 million m3, and the stony areas covers only 9.4 % of the country. In the same time the stony areas occupy up to 18% of some regions (in Minsk region for example), and up to 68 % in some districts (Miadel district). Such areas cover 15% of Grodno region, and 71% of Diatlovsky district. The stony areas occupy only 1% of southern regions of the country, because they are situated far from the glacier edges.
Some of the expedition members (V. Vinokurov,
E. Runets, 0. Zimenkov, etc.) became familiar with additional professions
and got rigger professional skills. As a result, geologists worked on not
only search and study of interesting boulders, but also loaded them on
trucks using cranes. On the first stage the boulders (the weight of some
boulders reaches 10-15 tons) selected in different regions of a country
were moved to Minsk by trucks. But this led to the big time losses. Therefore
it was decided to accumulate boulders at the railroad stations, and to
deliver them by special platforms to Minsk. 47 railway platforns loaded
with boulders were delivered to the museum.
In order to preserve boulders and taking
into account their scientific importance the Stone Park was opened in 1985
at the Institute of Geological Sciences NAS of Belarus (the first part
of Experimental base of glacial boulders or Geological Museum in the open
air). The Park exhibition is situated in the Eastern outskirts of Minsk
(Uruchie microdistrict) in the area of 16.1 acres. It includes 2135 exhibits
of the main exposition. The scientific concept of exposition was elaborated
by academician G. Goretsky (the head of a team), S. Astapova, V.Vinokurov,
academician R.Goretsky, Ev. Runets, R. Shempel, E.Levkov and others. The
Park territory itself is a complicated engineering structure. It includes
drinking and watering water supply systems, rain sewerage, electric lighting
system. The territory is greeneried with grasses, bushes and trees.
The Park of Stones consists of 6 sections (architects R. Knauer, R.Baranovsky, L.Saurova, T.Vlasava). The central exposition, "the Map of Belarus" (11 acres) represents the model of geographic map of the country with horizontal scale 1:2500 and vertical scale 1: 100. The Map shows the major frontal highlands, planes, lowlands, river network (represented by paths), and two pools (simulating Naroch Lake and Zaslavskoe man-made reservoir).
The highest hills (up to 3.5 meters) represent
the Minsk Highland with the highest altitudes of the country Dzerzynskaya
(Sviataya - Saint) Mount and Lysaya (Bald) Mount, 346 m and 342.7 m above
the sea level accordingly. The smaller hills show the other main highlands:
Grodnenskaya, Novogrudskaya, Oshmianskaya, and so on. The chain of stones
(0.5 - 0.8 meters in diameter) marks the limits of two last glaciers distribution.
They divide the territory of Belarus into three regions: Poozerian, Central
Belarussian and Polessian. The boulder material of each region reflects
a composition of three different glacial flows (North-Westem, Northem and
North-eastem). The feeding of these flows was carried out from the centres
of the glaciations in Sweden, Finland and Karelia.
A specimen of a land-mark stone. Belarussians carved such signs approx. 2000 to 2500 years ago on such stones.
Peculiarities of petrographic composition
of each glacial flow are reflected in the composition of boulders. The
rocks of Sweden and Baltic feeding province are predominant ones in the
North-Westem region, of Finish province - in Central region, and of Karelian
- in Eastem region. The 'Map" shows more than 600 boulders arranged according
to geographical characteristics (the volurne of boulders ranges from 5
to 6 cu.m, the weight - from 10 to 12 tons). The gatherings of boulders
are common not only for the frontal highlands, but also for the moraine
plains. The peculiarities of distribution of boulders within such planes
are shown on an example of Pribugskaya and Central-Berezinskaya lowlands.
An exhibition of area "Pribugskaya lowland" is arranged as an oval composition
of boulders with three stones in the centre grouped as a gate. There were
a lot of structures like this within the territory of our country. They
were formed due to the process of glacier degradation. The analogous structure
remained near the city of Vyborg in Leningrad region in Russia. Initially
the boulders were situated in the ice body as raisins in a bun, and than
after ice melting they formed such a composition. There are index-rocks
from Northern Sweden, Åland Islands and from the bottom of Baltic
Sea predominant here. An exhibition "Central Berezinskaya Lowland" composed
of the number of concentric boulder strips and large stone in the centre.
Shales and other rocks common for the Southern and Central Karelia are
frequently met here. The Map is oriented to the part of the world, and
its borders are underlined by the short bushes.
The other 5 sections surround the central
exhibition.
The exposition 'Teeding Provinces" displaying
the source of boulders - Fennoskandia, Baltic Sea and Finnish Bay occupies
the northwestem corner of the Museum. The Baltic Sea with Botnic and Finnish
Gulfs is shown as a U-shaped deepening in the middle of the flat area.
The contours of deepening are followed by boulders. So-called index-boulders
are represented here. They consist of rocks which occur in situ within
defined and limited in area sites.
The 'Tetrography Collection" section is situated in the south eastern part of the Park. It is arranged as a circle surrounded by a pathway. Magmatic, Sedimentary and Metamorphic boulders allocated in separate sectors of a circle. Such an arrangement of exhibits symbolizes a circulation of matter in the Nature, that led to the forming of these rocks. Rapakivi granites are remarkable ones among the magmatic rocks. The size of feldspars in rapakivi granites indicates their origination from different feeding provinces. The sedimentary rocks are characterised by representatives from quarts sandstone's, boulder conglomerates and karelian shales. Metamorphic rocks are presented by migmatites, gneiss, and quartzites of different types.
The exposition named "Shape of Boulders" in the eastern part displays a variety of boulder shapes. Glacial boulders amaze by diversity and uniqueness of their shape. There is ironshape, round, flat and convex boulders, with hatching and polished one or two edges in the exhibition. A number of causes influence condition the final shape of a stone. The first of them are an initial shape of debris before the glacial processing. Glacial processes affect more strongly the edges of boulders. Change in the shape is a slower process, depending on the rock properties (hardness, bedding, brittleness, granularity, etc.). The shape depends also on the distance and conditions of boulder transport in the glacier body.
The section "Stones in the Human Life" is situated in southern part of the Park. It shows original cult stones and boulders used by people: stone with signs (1 AC), idol-cross (IX - X AC), Stefan Batory Cross (XVI century), millstones (XVIII - XIX centuries), stone - defender (amulet) (XIX th century) and others.
"Boulder Alley", situated in the western part of the Park is the main pedestrian path connecting transportation stops, Uruchie Microdistrict and the Institute. The Alley is a sense continuation of previous section. The scenic view of a Park with hills, planes and scattered different in shape, composition and colour boulders is seen by one side of Alley. The other side is followed by the sinuous chain of large round and flat boulders. In some places the chain makes glades with large stones in the centres. The stones are raised above the surrounding exhibits. These stones will be supplied with bronze bas-reliefs, displaying the scenes from folk legends (sculptor V. Januslikevich). More than hundred such legends about turns of people, animals and even villages into boulders are still alive in different comers of our country.
The Experimental base has been established to study glacial boulders, to help in solving a number of geological problems, to find the ways of efficient use of boulders, and to popularise geological and local lore knowledge. The Base has had a status of Nature Monument of State significance since 1989. Perfection and widening of Park exposition is hindered currently because of economic crisis in the country. Nevertheless there are detailed programs and actions targeting future development of the Park elaborated and available. For example, it is planned to build rest areas with benches and litter receptacles, to set up pointers and schemes showing an arrangement of exhibits, names of rocks, etc.
V. Vinokurov
The Institute of Geological Sciences NAS
of Belarus
