On the development of geotouristic routes on the objects of the Precambrian Rock Association of the Western Priazоvia

Abstract

The article describes the priorities of the development of a new sphere in tourism – the geological sphere (geotourism). We have developed a complex of neces- sary measures for increasing the touristic attractiveness of objects of the geological heritage including justification of the touristic value of the objects selected for creating the touristic routes, posting information about the objects on available web-sites, including not only geotouristic routes and objects in the surrounding area, but also any other tourist attractions: geobotanical, landscape, archeological, historical-cultural, sacral, ethnic, etc. The paper justifies the necessity of involving the outcrop of Precambrian rocks of crystalline basement as geotouristic objects of Western Pryazovia. It was determined that almost all the most attractive geotouristic objects are geological relics of nature or geosites, some of which have official status and are included in the Nature-Reserve Lands of Ukraine. The paper describes the most important pages of the ancient history of Pryazovia in general and the Berda river in particular. Three variants of routes have been proposed, each based on the observations of the authors and their colleagues during geological surveys and field geological practice with university students specializing in geology. It was found that the most promising objects for touristic routes are the outcrops of crystalline Precambrian rocks located along the Berda river and surrounding territories. There, one can see a practically full section of outcrops of rock associations of the Osypenkivska Archean seria, which compose the Olz- hinska metabasite and Krutobalkivska metasedimental suites; intrusive and ultrametamorphic formations which form the Osypen- kivskyi gabbro-diorite, the Shevchenkivskyi plagiogranite-tonalite and the Saltychanskyi granite complexes. Among the geological objects which are exposed to observation in this relatively small territory, there are deposits of gold (Surozhske), rare metals (Kruta Balka), ceramical pegmatite (Mohyla Zelena and Velykyi Tabir Ravinne), iron (Korsak Mohyla). These objects give us a full impres- sion of the structure of the crystalline massif of the Western Pryazovia megastructure of the Ukrainian shield. We have formulated the main recommendations for the preparation and conducting of geotourism routes in Ukraine,which can be the basis for development of both internal and external geotourism.