Precambrian geological history of the Dnipro Rapids

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This article provides a concise description of chronological sequence of Rapids in the Dnipro within the area between the cities Dnipro and Zaporizhia, their role in the maritime transport of the Dnipro, and the relationship between humans and the river during a number of historical epochs; it presents the role of the Dnipro Rapids, also known as the Porohy of the Dnipro, as unique natural formations in the great River Dnipro, which flows through three countries and cuts through the Ukraininan Crystalline Shield. The article analyzes the sequence of measures taken by the supporters of conservation of nature along the Dnipro Rapids area, representatives of nature-conservation organizations and all people interested in Dnipro Rapids and conservation of its unique natural heritage - beginning with founding “Dniprovski Porohy” National Geological Reserve in Zaporizhia Oblast in 1974 to organizing “Dniprovi Porohy” Regional Landscape Park on the territory between Stari Kodaky village and the border of Zaporizhia Oblast. This paper highlights the diversity of geological processes which have taken place over a long and dynamic geological history, described in the stone chronicle or rocks and minerals, and which formed the Dnipro Rapids, an object of interest of many generations to come. This article emphasizes the fact that the geological component of a valuable natural phenomenon was described for the first time only in the results of particular studies by Valerian Domger, who conducted his research for the building of Katerynynska Railway upon instructions from the Geological Committee from 1881 to 1884. The pegmatite, diabase, granite, syenite with peculiarities of their mineral composition, elements of bedding, described by V Domger for the Nenasytetsky and Lohanivsky and other Rapids and islands, were not the only phenomena which have disappeared beneath the Dnipro waters forever. The small quarries, where the young geologist described the Sarmatian limestones, left no signs of their existence and not a single outcrop of the limestone survived. Therefore, the routes of V O Domger, the discoverer of the Nikopol manganese deposits, Tomakivska fauna of the Mediterranean type and Mandrykivska fauna, one of the best preserved in the world, are of great historical value. Likewise, his field studies have still not lost their scientific significance. This paper succinctly describes the geological history of the area of the Dnipro Rapids and the oldest crystalline rocks of the Aul series and non-stratified formations of the Dnipropetrovsk and other natural complexes, involved in the formation of certain rapids.