Abstract
The Geological Garden at Tata is an open-air geological museum where a spectacular succession of Tethyan Mesozoic sedimentary rocks, characteristic of the Alpine-Carpathian region, is finely exposed in abandoned quarries and cleaned rock surfaces. In addition to geological values, the area houses copper-age chert mines, the only ones accessible to the wider public in Hungary. Due to financial problems, however, maintenance of the site was more or less confined to mowing for more than 20 years. Renewal of the Geological Garden began in 2015 when large-scale cleaning as well as detailed surveying was carried out. Removing the soil and loose rock debris provided opportunity to study the effects of weathering and growth of vegetation. Near 60 m3 of rock debris and soil had been accumulated on approx. 5000 m2 rock surface over the decades of obligate deterioration. Lower Jurassic marl and Middle Jurassic radiolarite chert beds as well as Middle Jurassic limestones proved to be especially deeply weathered. The cleaning action raised the question whether the sub-horizontal rock surfaces can be conserved for a long time in their present state or not. Lessons drawn from the latter can serve as a basis for future maintenance activities as well as for plans aiming at developing geosites.
Highlights
Introduction and Historical BackgroundThe territory of Hungary, characterized by surface rocks and sediments of Neogene and Quaternary age, is relatively rich in scientifically important and/or spectacular geosites representing earlier periods of Earth history, and some of them were given statutory protection long ago
There a finely exposed succession of Mesozoic sedimentary rocks characteristic of the Alpine-Carpathian region can be studied in abandoned quarries and cleaned rock surfaces of the Kálvária Hill (Calvary Hill, if translated), a fault-bounded rocky horst of around 150 m altitude above sea level (Fülöp 1976; Haas 2007)
Geological results of the surveying include ascertainment of the structure of the rock mass forming the lower yard of the Geological Garden as well
Summary
Introduction and Historical BackgroundThe territory of Hungary, characterized by surface rocks and sediments of Neogene and Quaternary age, is relatively rich in scientifically important and/or spectacular geosites representing earlier periods of Earth history, and some of them were given statutory protection long ago. József Fülöp (1928–1994), an almost plenipotentiary actor in geology from the early 1950s to the end of 1980s, i.e. the time of changing in society in Hungary, had the opportunity to make large rock surfaces clean in order to study Middle and Upper Jurassic rocks that have never been quarried being unsuitable for building. Detailed geological survey carried out by him has lead to the recognition of scientific and educational importance of the Kálvária Hill Mesozoic succession, and a part of the hill was declared to be a nature conservation area in 1958.
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