Abstract
Geoheritage is not necessarily linked genetically to “purely” geological processes. Investigations in two urban areas of Russia allowed us to find essentially artificial objects demonstrating certain geological uniqueness. The huge balls sculptured from rapakivi granite and installed in Saint Petersburg represent cultural, historical, and stone heritage. These are also artificial megaclasts with perfect sphericity. The coal waste heaps situated in Shakhty and its vicinity represent industrial, historical, and urban heritage. These are also artificial landforms creating a kind of pseudo-mountainous landscape. These examples permit us to question the importance of the co-occurrence of heritage categories for geosite assessment.
Highlights
Geoheritage is an important resource [1,2,3]
Cárdenes et al [4] showed the connections between geological and industrial heritage and regional history; Ezquerro and Simón [5] related geoheritage to music; Gordon [6] put geoheritage into the context of cultural landscapes; Górska-Zabielska [7] demonstrated that a university’s rock garden can be considered as geosite; Kubalíková [8] realized the cultural ecosystem services of geodiversity; Moroni et al [9] linked geological and archaeological heritage; Pásková et al [10] analyzed culture–geology interplay in geoparks; and Prosser [11] explained that quarry-based geosites establish cultural connections
The first are granite balls, which are a part of the famous architectural ensemble in the historical part of the city of Saint Petersburg in the Russian
Summary
Several specialists have argued that it is tied to cultural, historical, archaeological, and other categories of heritage. Essentially artificial heritage features, which can be interpreted as geoheritage, are still poorly-known. This may include mines or tunnels created to modify the geological environment or natural stones used in buildings, and objects significantly less related to geology. Even the word “artificial” is used in this paper with certain caution
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