Bogdo–Baskunchak Nature Reserve as a geoheritage site

Abstract

Abstract The Bogdo–Baskunchak Nature Reserve is a geoheritage site in the Caspian Depression, near the Lower Volga River. The Salt Lake Baskunchak and the Mount Big Bogdo with the gypsum field are the main objects of interest. Local legends about this place and the history of salt mining and trading, as well as geological exploration, make this geoheritage site special. This natural landscape is intact, as seen by the first scientific expeditions of the eighteenth century organized by the Imperial Academy of Sciences and Arts in St Petersburg. Reports and papers about this area are associated with Pallas, Humboldt, Murchison, Eichwald, Auerbach, Pravoslavlev, Efremov and other scientists and expeditions. Extensive research and important discoveries were made in this area, mostly in mineralogy, stratigraphy, palaeontology, sedimentology, salt tectonics, and mining. This area reflects its long history of exploration and could be a good example of organizing the protection of geological landmarks and monuments in arid regions. In 1916, a Russian law was passed giving the government rights to organize reserves ( zapovednik ) for scientific and cultural purposes in the most remarkable natural areas. Only in recent decades have geological monuments in Russia become specially protected sites.