Sea pebbles how it is formed. Where do stones come from. And now the stories about that anomaly in the Black Sea, which my wife and I actually witnessed
Minerals form under many different environmental conditions inside the Earth. Most gemstones are formed in the earth bark- the upper layer of the planet with a depth of 3 to 25 miles. Only two varieties of precious stones - and are formed in the earth robes, which represents 80% of the Earth's volume. The mantle is mainly composed of molten rock called magma, with a hard top layer.
Although few of the gems are originally formed in the mantle, all gems are mined in the earth's crust. The crust is made up of three types of rocks known in geology as volcanic, metamorphic And sedimentary. These technical terms refer to the way rocks are formed. Some gemstones are particularly associated with one type of rock, while others are associated with several types of rock.
The volcanic process involves the solidification of magma. Magma from the mantle can rise to the crust, usually through volcanic pipes. If it reaches the surface of the earth, it solidifies in the form of lava. However, if the igneous mass cools slowly in the crust, it can crystallize and form minerals. An increase in pressure can also force this pegmatoid fluid into the surrounding rocks, often chemically exchanging with them. A long list of gemstones formed from volcanic rock includes the group , all (including , and ), ( , and ), , And .
When volcanic rock reaches the earth's surface, the forces of erosion and atmospheric action cause it to break into smaller particles that accumulate on the surface or are moved by wind and water. Over time, layers of such sediments form on the ground or under water. Pressure from the upper layers causes compaction in the lower layers along with various chemical and physical changes, such as petrification, which leads to the creation of sedimentary rock. Evaporation is another process that produces sedimentary rocks, as is the case when the dripping of mineral-rich water forms stalactites or stalagmites. Gems associated with sedimentary rock include , and .
The presence of intrusive magma in a given zone (known as contact metamorphism) or the interaction of larger scale tectonic plates (known as regional metamorphism) exposes volcanic and sedimentary rocks and minerals to heat or pressure that can cause changes in their chemical and crystalline structures. The result is the creation of a metamorphic rock. Gems associated with metamorphic rock include
There are quite a lot of curious people among our brother. There are also those who wonder: how many beaches are there on the Russian Black Sea coast?! Some originals from among the connoisseurs of geography claim that, they say, the entire seashore is a continuous large beach! And, here, the natives, that is, the inhabitants of the Black Sea region, categorically disagree with such a statement, because the relief off the coast often changes - either a pebbly or sandy strip, or a pile of stones, or suddenly an impressive rock or a whole series of impregnable rocks descends into the sea from land . What kind of beaches are there? And, to be objective, the truth is on the side of the indigenous inhabitants of these places: the sea stretches far along the coast, but it is not a solid beach at all!
They got to the bottom of the truth only in the Crimea - on the peninsula, it is estimated that there are eight hundred beaches - sandy, pebbly, rocky, moreover, departmental (at some sanatoriums and boarding houses) publicly accessible as, for example, in Anapa and wild ones, including nudist ones like in the Koktebel region, Utrish and in other coastal places.
For those curious to get to the truth, we add that the Russian Black Sea coast has added kilometers to itself since 2014 - due to the return of Crimea to its historical homeland. If the entire coastline of the Black Sea is more than 3,400 kilometers, then our share is 1.2 thousand (from 421 to 474, in fact, the Krasnodar Territory, plus 750 kilometers of the Crimean coast). In terms of the length of the coastline, we are slightly behind Turkey, but we are superior to Ukraine. Recall with the same curious - the Black Sea coast in known quantities is divided by five countries: Russia, Turkey, Ukraine, Bulgaria and Georgia. Now let's go directly to the beaches - in alphabetical order.
Not many coastal countries can boast of such excellent beaches as the All-Russian health resort for family and children's recreation and treatment of Anapa. Their length is about seventy kilometers, of which 40 is a golden embankment left in memory of itself by the ancient river Kuban, which suddenly changed its old course to a new one. And here the definition of the curious that the coast - a solid beach - will come in handy. From the Anapka River itself, where the Central Beach already continues and to the village of Blagoveshchenskaya (more than 35 kilometers), a golden sandy strip stretches, and even, like in a desert, with dunes from three to twelve meters high, in some places overgrown with branchy trees, giving a saving shade in the heat of the whole family. The width of the beaches is from two tens of meters to two hundred and more behind the Anapka River and six hundred near the village of Blagoveshchenskaya. Anapa, Dzhemete, Vityazevo, Blagoveshchenskaya - all along the coast, the entrance to the beaches is free, although sanatoriums, boarding houses, children's health camps, recreation centers and so on go to them. From land to the sea, you have to walk a dozen meters until you are up to your chest - expanse for children and adults who cannot swim.
Given that the sun shines over the resort all 280 days a year, the water warms up quickly after the off-season, and you can swim in it next to the dolphins from late April to early November inclusive. The beaches are landscaped in the European manner - awnings, lifeguard trailers, toilets, of course - sun loungers and deck chairs, there are also those that turn after the sun, and an even tan forms on your body. Doctors are on duty. Catamarans, "bananas", "tablets", flying over the sea on parachutes - there are other attractions. At the border of the beach area - cafes, canteens, kiosks with soft drinks, ice cream, souvenirs. At the Central Beach there is a Summer Stage, where concerts of show business stars take place in the evenings with a full house.
There are pebbly and rocky beaches in Anapa. They start immediately behind the sandy ones towards Malaya Bay, Mayak, and then Small and Big Utrish and stretch for, consider, three dozen kilometers. Landscaped. And on Bolshoi Utrish, holidaymakers can expect a dolphinarium with an open-air theater, where during the high season several performances are given in a row, and after virtuoso fantastic performances, dolphins jump out of the sea onto the platform and willingly pose with the audience on a TV camera or camera, winking at you smart and cheerful eyes. Pleasure boats depart from the sea station and berths in other places according to the schedule. They are also accompanied by dolphins, in addition to seagulls, albatrosses and other birds living by the sea, swimming familiarly in it.
Gelendzhik resort beaches
The beautiful name of the resort city is beautiful and is translated - "White Bride". Although its origins are rather sad. Once upon a time, slave trade flourished here at the Gelendzhik Bay at the foot of the Markhot Range. Foreign rulers specially sailed here for white-faced women, who were bought into slaves or taken as wives. From here it came - "The White Bride", by the way, a monument to her rises on the Central Embankment, visible even from the height of the surrounding peaks. So, it is known for certain that the coastline stretches for almost a hundred kilometers. Twenty and a half of them occupy the beaches. Dare?! A little more than a fifth of the coast, other places are difficult to access: the Great Caucasus Mountains stretch along them, and the rocks rise directly to the water or enter directly into the sea.
The best of the best of course - Central Beach. It occupies an area of five and a half hectares. It is more than a kilometer long, from three to eighty meters wide. And the total number of beach areas (large and small) in the resort is 114. The central beach is artificial bulk, river sand is used. It starts from the beach of the hotel "Primorye", is interrupted at the sea station, then continues to the water park "Dolphin". Gelendzhik Bay looks like a huge horseshoe. Along it - 24 beaches: "Azure Coast", "Krucha", "Gardens of the Seas", wild "Sosnovka", "Sandy Bottom" and others. By the way, Gelendzhik has the longest embankment in the world - eight kilometers. It is especially beautiful from the height of the Markhot Range, from its observation deck. Yes, and from the heights of two chair airways leading to its top, moreover, above the famous Safari Park, in which wild animals are kept in free conditions, ranging from a light graceful fallow deer to a tiger or the king of animals - a formidable lion.
Gelendzhik has many resort areas - Arkhipo-Osipovka, Divnomorskoye, Kabardinka, near the Psharsky rural district - Beregovoe, Mikhailovskoye, Wide Pshadskaya slit, Betta. As in neighboring Anapa, the beaches are well landscaped with awnings, mushrooms, lifeguard houses, first-aid posts, water attractions near the shore, pleasure boats cruise along the waves, in a word, you can not only sunbathe and swim from the heart, but also have fun. For lovers of sunbathing and diving in warm waves, but in order to have fewer people nearby, there are wild beaches - in the Tolstoy Cape area. It's nice for nudists too.
The beaches of Greater Sochi
Our southern capital in the zone of humid subtropics is called so for good reason. The city stretches along the coastline for almost 145 kilometers. Of these, beach areas - 118. And in total there are already over 130 beach areas! With small pebbles, an admixture of sand, stony. Municipal free, wild and not equipped, closed at sanatoriums or at the same health resorts, but available to tourists. The Central Beach is popular. It is over a hundred meters long and -25-30 wide. Finely pebbly. The people call the beach area "SANTA BARBARA". Practically works around the clock - with cafes, restaurants, discos and so on. Perfectly equipped - with sun loungers, deckchairs, mushrooms, awnings, it is possible to go fishing on the high seas, go on boats to race with dolphins. Often visited by guests and locals are the beaches - "Mayak", "Primorsky", "Solnechny", health resorts "Iskra", "Sputnik", "Green Grove" and others. Nudists usually gather on their favorite beach in the Maly Akhun area.
Like any large resort town on the Black Sea coast, Greater Sochi has many recreation areas in municipalities. Actually, resort villages are well known among Russians and guests from abroad - Matsesta, Magri, Makopse, Ashe, Lazorevskoye, Golovinka, Loo, Dagomys, Mamaika, Khosta, Kudepsta and others. Of course, they all have well-equipped beaches. The central beach of Dagomys stretches for one and a half kilometers. It is 70-90 meters wide. With small pebbles and sand inclusions. By the way, from Dagomys from Sochi - a stone's throw. If you want to go by train, if you wish - by regular bus or minibus, you can take a taxi. Of course, there are fewer people than in the city itself. And there are no less amenities - there is where to eat, what to swim near the shore or in the sea. Doctors are on duty, the beach of the resort village of Loo, adjacent to Dagomys, which can be reached by the same means of transport, is somewhat smaller - 600 meters and 65 meters wide. But it is also convenient, and most importantly protected from the wind: rocks painted by local young artists approach it. In both villages there are many private sector, mini-hotels, guest houses, so finding a roof over your head is a couple of trifles! Nearby there are sanatoriums and boarding houses where you can get medical treatment for kursovka. It is also well known that life is not possible in the Black Sea at a depth of two hundred meters - below hydrogen sulfide, which kills all life. At the same time, it is very useful - a mixture of it with water perfectly heals. And this is convincingly proven in Matsesta. Here, with hydrogen sulfide baths, they treat cardiovascular, nervous, skin, ENT diseases, gynecology, and put your musculoskeletal system in order. And the beaches of Matsesta are different - narrow, wide, but all of small pebbles. There are even nudist ones.
Tuapse beaches
First of all, it must be borne in mind that the city has a large seaport on the Black Sea coast. So it's a bit noisy here. And the sea almost immediately from the shore goes into the depths. However, the resort has its own beaches. Their length is over 60 kilometers. The width is different - from two, three meters to a spacious seventy. Most holidaymakers, which is quite natural, rush to the Central Beach. It is quite roomy - it stretches for more than a kilometer, from the Tuapse River to the boarding house "Spring". Covered with fine gravel and pebbles. Landscaped. There are boat rentals. Water and other attractions. You won’t have to starve and languish with thirst - near the beaches there are cafes, canteens, kiosks with soft drinks, pastries, you can also taste chicken, fish, beef or pork skewers. Rescuers strictly observe the behavior of tourists on the water, in a state of intoxication they will not let them in, they will insure those who cannot swim.
Expanse on the beach in the village of Primorskoye! The local beach here is called "Wild". There are pebbles, there are boulders. The latter, by the way, love sunbathing. They perched on them, and lie quietly in the sun. Is that sometimes, changing the position of the body. There are fewer people here, but not always. On weekends, residents are not averse to coming here to rest. Together with their children or grandchildren.
There is in the vicinity of Tuapse, well, just a charming place by the sea - Kiseleva rock. The view is amazing! From below, it seems to be a bare wall, and on top of a dense forest of pines. Surrounded by stone heaps. But the descent into the water is gentle. Comfortable for kids and non-swimmers.
There is in the vicinity of Tuapse, well, just a charming place by the sea - Kiselev Rock. The view is amazing! From below, it seems to be a bare wall 46 meters high and sixty meters wide, and on top of a dense forest of pines. Amazingly fantastic monument of nature! Surrounded by stone heaps. But the descent into the water is gentle. Comfortable for kids and non-swimmers. But, in the village of Lermontovo, there is already, as they say, a different calico - the Gold Coast beach, two kilometers long and fifty meters wide, originates from the Shapsuho River. Rest on it is a pleasure!
Do not be disappointed with the beaches of the resort villages of Agoy, Dzhubga, Olginka, Nebug, Gizel-Dere, Dederkoy and others, located in the Tuapse zone.
The beaches of Taman
The Taman Peninsula in the Krasnodar Territory is a legendary place. Since 2001, he received the status of the All-Russian health resort due to the presence of large deposits of therapeutic mud here. There are almost four dozen active or extinct mud volcanoes here. Taman (name in the distant past Tmutarakan) is the most unique place on earth: in the Kerch Strait, two seas, the Black and Azov, throw themselves into each other's arms. Remember Alexander Pushkin's fairy tale poem "Ruslan and Lyudmila"? The famous "Lukomorye green oak"? All this on Taman. And the village of Taman itself stands on the shores of two seas. By the way, the Black Sea resorts on Taman occupy a small area - along the coast they are located only twenty kilometers away. Chief among them is the village of Taman with a population of just over nine thousand. A staircase leads to the beach - in miniature Potemkinskaya, in the cheerful city of Odessa. Lovely sandy beach. There are not so many people on it, but this is wonderful: no one interferes with anyone. Eight kilometers from Taman is the village of Volna. It stands in a high place. The sea view is amazing! Went down to the beach, feet buried in the soft hot sand. The water is the purest - it is not in vain that dolphins visit here, who cannot stand the slightest pollution! Off the coast and in the sea - excellent fishing. All opportunities for diving and other sea extreme sports. A dozen and a half from the Wave is another resort village of Veselovka. Lovely sandy beach. Long and wide. There is no need to talk about the Bugaz Spit - it stretches for fifteen kilometers to Blagoveshchenskaya. It is, as it were, one with the golden embankment of Anapa. They have one ancestor - the Kuban River, which flows into the Temryuk Bay of the Sea of \u200b\u200bAzov. So, if someone happens to visit the Taman Peninsula, get two pleasures - swim for a day in two seas! By the way, there is a salt lake in Veselovka. In the summer, it sometimes dries up, but they use its mud. It also treats skin diseases and ailments of the musculoskeletal system. And the water of the lake itself is healing.
And a little more about luck. The coast from Temryuk to the Kerch Strait, a hundred kilometers long, is not in vain called the Azov Riviera. Every year more and more people want to come to these places - to the village of Golubitskaya with its healing salt lake and healing mud at the bottom, the resort village of Kuchugury, For the Motherland, to the city of Yeysk, etc. Because they are within easy reach of the Black Sea . Can you resist the temptation to take a dip in both of them on your vacation?! Along the way, admiring the lotus valley and diving into the mud volcanoes Tizdar and Blue Balka?!
Crimean beaches
Having returned to the bosom of Russia, to its historical homeland, the Crimean peninsula has at its disposal half a thousand resort areas. The length of its beaches exceeds 343 kilometers with a width of twelve to twenty-five meters, in some places they are even wider than that, and in total there are under eight hundred of them. All the beaches of the Crimea, like the Kuban, are curative: in the off-season, the sea literally shovels them with its storms and saturates them with its useful salts. Beaches will cure your sciatica, rheumatism, musculoskeletal system, skin and other diseases. They have a beneficial effect on the nervous, cardiovascular system, bronchi, lungs. There are beautiful beaches in the resort villages of Koktebel, Ordzhonikidze, Beregovoy, Primorsky, Feodosia, not to mention such coastal cities as Sudak, Yalta, Evpatoria or Feodosia.
Special mention should be made of Theodosius. Its "Golden Beach" stretches for as much as seventeen kilometers. Perfectly equipped and equipped, you will be delighted with it. As well as from the beach "Pearl", which received such a precious name because its sand has a mother-of-pearl hue. The children's beach is smaller - 300 meters with a little, but the kids are safe here: it has a gentle slope into the sea. By the way, all the beaches of Feodosia have a flat and soft bottom, which is noted with pleasure by all holidaymakers and owners of guest houses, private hotels that determine you to stay.
There are several well-maintained beaches in Yalta with its world-famous Artek children's health camp, in which more than twenty thousand children from Russia itself, as well as from near and far abroad, rest and are treated annually. The priority is Massandrovsky beach. Its width reaches 35 meters, the length is kilometers. There are two zones here - for VIPs with increased comfort and for decent money, and three zones are free. Life on the beach is in full swing in the literal sense of the word around the clock. Cafes, restaurants, discos, rentals work day and night. People return home exhausted but deafeningly satisfied with photos on their mobile phones and stories on movie cameras. There are good beaches at the boarding houses "Actor", "Donbass", at the yacht club "Yalta", in the suburbs - "Nikitsky" and others. You can talk about all the beaches of Crimea for a long time and in detail, but still, you won’t cover all of them: we mentioned at the beginning that there are over five hundred resort areas on the peninsula. Fly here, come, settle down at some resort and hurry to the sea - fall in love with it and the coast on which you were lucky enough to relax!
The young, still developing world always consists of stone, water and fire. This is what the planet looked like a billion years ago. A sky overcast with storm clouds reflecting the flames of erupting volcanoes, and a raging, eternally stormy sea.
In the crazy chaos of lightning, thunder and the roar of volcanoes was born. This is it today, cozy and green, but then everything looked completely different. The land, trembling nervously in continuous waves, spewed out of itself what would later become basalt and gneiss.
The mountains, crawling on each other like gigantic monsters, gnawed and maimed each other, dropping huge blocks of granite and gabbro.
Only with the passage of time did the earth gradually get rid of the birth pangs and calm down, from time to time throwing columns of volcanic eruptions into the gradually clearing sky and trembling with the rocky surface, crumbling and grinding individual blocks and rocks.
water world
The climate became gradually milder. Warm waters filled lowlands and depressions, and such life was born in them. Outlandish crustaceans and molluscs spread surprisingly abundantly in warm seas. Dying away, they literally covered the bottom with their shells and shells. More and more molluscs appeared in the warm brackish water, the layer of their remains at the bottom became thicker and denser and harder. Collapsing under their own weight, the shells were mixed, as if growing together with each other, turning into solid blocks of stone.
A rolling stone does not grow moss
Those stones that are found in everyday life, in most cases, are the remains of either destroyed sedimentary rocks, which makes up approximately 75% of the total number of stones, or metamorphic rocks of the order of 18–20%, that is, rocks that have changed inside the earth under the influence of pressure and temperature. Everything else is igneous rocks, such as granites and basalts. Source rocks from the depths of the planet.
All these boulder stones acquired their present form mainly as a result of weathering on land and rolling in the water of rivers. Only an insignificant part of the remnant stones on the plains has retained, if not the original, then at least a fairly ancient appearance, but weathering has also affected them, this is especially noticeable in the case when a boulder or remnant is composed of sedimentary rocks, which are relatively easily destroyed as a result of atmospheric phenomena. As an example, one can cite the characteristic figures of weathering in the valley of ghosts on South Demerdzhi in the Crimean mountains.
There were several classifications of gems. Now it is generally accepted to divide them into 3 categories. The first includes the rarest and most expensive, the third includes ornamental stones. Not only jewelry is made from minerals, but also figurines, talismans and other carved figures.
Gemstones are gems with a hardness greater than 6 and the ability to scatter light. They are characterized by a uniform color or lack of color, wear resistance, resistance to aggressive environments and fading. They belong to high-quality raw materials, most of them are cut.
The hardness scale was invented in 1811 by the German scientist Friedrich Moos. It was based on the principle of comparing rocks of different hardness. The hardest stone is diamond.
Another group of stones is called ornamental. These include crystals, including opaque ones, and stones with inclusions and patterns. Carvings, decorations are made from them, used for finishing work.
There are several types of gems, professionals divide them into 3 groups, depending on their value. This classification was proposed by V. Ya. Kievlenko.
According to the classification of M. Bauer, all gems are divided into precious, ornamental and organogenic stones, which include amber, pearls and coral. The most expensive are natural stones, very rare in nature.
The minerals presented in the first group are called jewelry (precious) and are divided into 4 categories.
1. The most is diamond, followed by sapphire (blue), ruby and emerald.
2. Orange, green and purple sapphires are cheaper than blue ones, jadeite, alexandrite, pearls, black opal.
3. Demantoid, topaz, aquamarine, red tourmaline, the most valuable among opals are fire and white.
4. Turquoise, tourmaline, amethyst, beryl, chrysolite, beryl (pink, yellow), chrysoprase.
Jewelry can vary greatly in value, since several criteria affect the price of a stone at once. The four main ones are clarity, color, weight and cut.
After cutting, the color of the finished insert is evaluated by tone, saturation and hue. Emeralds and rubies have one main color, but there can be several shades of it. Tourmalines and topazes can be of different colors, each of which has a certain value. The handwork of the master cutter allows the gem to play and sparkle in good light, bringing out the natural beauty of the mineral. The cost of rare large gems can increase exponentially in relation to their mass.
Group 2 includes colored and jewelry and ornamental stones. It consists of two groups.
1. Malachite, amber, smoky quartz, jade, hematite, jadeite, rock crystal.
2. Opaque feldspars, heliotrope, agate, rose quartz, common opal, colored chalcedony.
These stones are well polished and used as an insert in jewelry and are used for souvenirs and figurines.
The third group consists of ornamental stones. These include: fluorite, selenite, colored marble, granite, jasper, obsidian, jet, aventurine quartzite. Large products are cut out of them, the height of which can reach several tens of centimeters.
Mineral prices may change when new deposits are discovered or influenced by fashion. Only specialists can distinguish a synthetic stone from a natural one, since they are similar in physical and chemical properties to natural gems.
Pages 2 of 4
Where do boulders come from and what is it ...
I have long wanted to write something about boulders, as I collected various information about them, photographed boulders in various countries, but could not tie everything together. Such a case presented itself. Recently I managed to find out that in the city of Minsk in Belarus there is a unique museum of boulders collected from all over Belarus and placed in a specific thematic composition.
This museum is located in the open air on an area of about 6.5 hectares and was created at the Institute of Geological Sciences of Belarus more than thirty years ago by Belarusian scientists-enthusiasts, headed by academician Gavriil Ivanovich Goretsky.
It was also possible to find out that Gavriil Ivanovich Goretsky(1900-1988) patriot, geologist, creator of the new science of paleopathamology, which studies the origin of the relief formed as a result of glacial deposits, put a lot of effort into creating such a museum.
Under his leadership, since 1974, active scientific work has been carried out to search for and study unique, distinctive or characteristic glacial boulders throughout Belarus.
Boulders, and these are stones measuring in diameter from 10 cm to 3-5 meters or more, are found everywhere on the surface of the territory of Belarus. In some places they form heaps in the form of boulder mounds, boulder fields, rocky ridges, and sometimes individual blocks of stone are hidden on the edges of the forest, the slopes of ravines, along roads and rivers and create the unique beauty of landscapes. Boulders are represented by a wide variety of rocks of igneous, metamorphic and sedimentary origin.
All of them are foreigners, who were brought from distant lands and delivered to the territory of Belarus by huge glaciers that repeatedly covered the Northern Hemisphere of the Earth during its long geological life.
Stones can tell a lot about themselves: where they came from, how they got here, what paths they took and what events happened to them. Therefore, boulders help scientists solve controversial issues about the amount of icing, the location of the centers of origin of glacial flows, the directions and speeds of their movement, their stopping points, and the qualitative and quantitative composition of glacial sediment.
The geological reference book of Belarus gives a definition of boulders and an explanation of their location.
boulders- large, rounded (rounded) rock fragments with a diameter of 10 cm or more, processed by the glacier during their transportation.
Ancient boulders, as a rule, are located on the surface of the earth, however, they are confined to terminal moraine formations, and therefore come across at different depths. As agricultural land is cultivated, and also over time as a result of freezing of wet soil, boulders are squeezed out of the ground, which gives the impression of their constant growth, an increase in their number on the surface.
In glacial areas, boulders are distributed regularly, fan-shaped diverge from the centers of glaciation. As the transport capacity of the glacier decreases, more and more boulders remain on the surface of the earth.
Therefore, the birthplace of boulders in the European territory are the bedrocks of Sweden, Finland, the rocks of the bottom of the sea and the Baltic islands, as well as the bedrocks of the northwestern regions of Russia.
Boulders carried over long distances are called erratic, or wandering. In Belarus, boulders of various shapes are widely represented in the central and northern regions (to the north of the boundaries of ancient glaciations), most of them are scattered over the surface of terminal moraine uplands, much less is found on intermorainic lowlands and in river valleys. There are boulders of impressive size. The largest of them (length 10.6 m, width 5.6 m, rises 2.8 m above the ground) is located near the village of Gorki, Shumilinsky district.
Boulders hinder farming. Their accumulations form bouldered fields, which reduces the yield of agricultural crops (crop shortage can reach 15-20%), and hinder the effective use of equipment.
Boulders are used in the construction of foundations, religious buildings, expensive paving, for obtaining crushed stone, as backfill material for dams, strengthening slopes, creating architectural compositions in parks, squares, along highways, etc.
|
|
|
Many boulders are associated with folk tales.
In connection with the change in natural landscapes under the influence of human economic activity: clearing fields from boulders, their use in construction, etc., there is a need to protect boulders and preserve them as objects of study, therefore the most original and rare are geological monuments of nature and are protected by the state.
In the last decade, landscape and park art began to develop in the cities of Belarus. In different parts of open areas, streets, parks, along the banks of lakes and streams in cities, man-made compositions are created from boulder stone and ornamental plants. Such corners look very good and fit well into the modern architecture of Belarusian cities.
All the pebbles of this world, with the exception of pieces of man-made bricks, cinder blocks and glass charred by the sea, came out either from water or from fire, and its age is estimated at tens of thousands and even millions of years. A long time ago, the Caucasus Mountains (and with them the territory of the city of Sochi), the same age as the Alps, Carpathians, Crimea and the Himalayas, were the bottom of a huge warm ocean. Year after year, century after century, eroded particles of rocks carried by the rivers of the fore-continents or the remains of plants and marine life were deposited in layers, forming strata of sedimentary rocks. Over time, the movement of lithospheric plates formed folds from which the modern Caucasus grew - therefore, on mountain peaks, for example, on Mount Fisht or on Aibga, organic limestones are found along with limestones of chemogenic and detrital origin - whole fossilized coral reefs, the remains of huge ammonite mollusks, prints skeletons of ancient fish and shark teeth. Quite different stones came out of the fire - basalts, gabbro, granites. These rocks formed frozen on the ground or underground flows of magma or lava. There is also a third type of rocks - metamorphic, formed from sedimentary or magmatic rocks under the influence of high pressures or temperatures.
In addition to standard basalts and limestones, corn cobs and dead jellyfish, the Sochi surf can bring semi-precious stones to your feet - red and yellow jaspers. Red, hematite, fall into the sea from the upper reaches of the Mzymta, yellow - along Sochinka from the Plastunsky upland. In the 30s of the last century, gold was panned on the coastline within the city limits - a whole artel worked. In the second half of the twentieth century, the mines were closed as unprofitable, but the fact remains that if in the village of Magnituri near Batumi people bask on the healing magnetic sand, then in Sochi - on gold.
SCAPP asked geologist Alexander Trenbach to select and label rock samples from common Black Sea pebbles on one of the typical city beaches. The scientific laboratory of the Sirius Educational Center assisted in a more detailed study of the samples and obtaining images from a digital microscope.
Limestone
This sedimentary rock is fine-grained, depending on the impurities, the stone can be pink, white, gray, sometimes black, red or even yellowish. It is widely used in construction, the chemical industry - limestone is used to produce lime, and in general it is a very useful material for agriculture, metallurgy and other industries.
Sandstone
Another popular coastal sedimentary rock, granular and cemented, is considered a frequent companion of gold. Due to impurities, it can be yellowish, brown, black and green. Used mainly in construction. The largest sandstone deposit in Sochi is located in the village of Soloniki, where a quarry is being developed.
Mudstones and siltstones
Rocks that are intermediate between clays and sandstones. Dense, layered, suitable for the manufacture of expanded clay, which, by the way, is also produced in Sochi, at a building materials plant. Argillites are grey. Siltstones can be gray, black, green and red.
Gravelite and conglomerate
Sedimentary rocks of large particles cemented by clay or other materials of various origins. Durable stones are used as a building material.
Roofing slate
Sedimentary, clay rock, which is easy to split into fairly strong and thin layers of 3-5 cm. In Sochi, in the upper reaches of the Mzymta, a slate mine worked to extract natural tiles - an environmentally friendly and reliable material.
gneisses
Favorite stones of vacationers to create monumental inscriptions on beaches like "Barnaul 2016" or "Lyusya + Ashot". This is a metamorphic rock formed from sandstones interspersed with silver particles of moscovite or mica. It looks very nice, it is used in construction, although it does not have such strength as granite.
Granites
Granites of various shades are often found on city beaches. They are carried ashore by the Mzymta and Shakhe rivers. This is an igneous rock, consisting of quartz (up to 30%), feldspars, amphiboles and micas. A strong and durable material for the construction and cladding of buildings, embankments and bridges.
Diorites and andesites
Diorites and andesites are igneous rocks in which the quartz content is 10 - 15%. The rest of the mass is amphiboles, potassium feldspars and plagioclases. Suitable for building purposes.
Gabbro and basalts
These rocks are of igneous origin. They consist of pyroxenes, to a lesser extent, amphiboles, plagioclases, and feldspars. Quartz is absent in these rocks. White inclusions in basalts are represented by zeolites.
