STEPAN RUDNITSKY'S STUDIES OF THE PODILLYA RELIEF: ITS MORPHOLOGY, GENESIS AND HISTORY OF DEVELOPMENT

Abstract

S. Rudnitsky’s research continued in Podillya; he went on studying the morphology of genesis and history of the relief of the Carpathian and pre-Carpathian Dniester basins. Many years of expeditionary research (1903-1912) resulted in the monograph “Prerequisites for Studying Morphology of the Podilsky Catchment Area of the Dniester”, which was recommended for publication at the meeting of the Mathematical & Nature Descriptive section of the Shevchenko Scientific society (NTSh) on April 17, 1912. This work provides detailed morphographic and morphometric characteristics of the Galician Podillya relief. The monograph also reports on the formation of the Dniester basin river system, geological structure, paleogeomorphology, as well as morphological & genetic problems. In studying the Podilsky Dniester Basin, S. Rudnytsky made numerous conclusions on the problems of morphological regionalization, the relief history, in particular the formation of the Dniester valley and its Podilsky tributaries, which have not lost their relevance to this day. We can distinguish the following major points among the main findings of S. Rudnitsky's research of morphogenesis and the evolution of the Podilsky Dniester basin relief: (1) Geomorphological division of the Galician Podillya with districts allocation: Roztochya, Vereshchytsky-Shchyrets lowland, Mykolayiv-Bobretskyi “horbovyna” (land surface with hills) (Pidopillya), Opilsky “horbovyna”, Podnistriya, Podillya and Gogoloro-Kremenetsk Ridge; (2) Clarification of the history of individual regions development: the erratic Scandinavian material in Roztochya is mixed (Scandinavian-Carpathian); it is deposited by fluvia-glacial flows and represented up to altitudes of 380 m; (3) In the periglacial Pleistocene period, almost all the sands of the main areas had eolian processes; (4) Confirmation of the Podillya geological division into western and eastern with five morphological bands, proposed by W. Teisseyre; (5) Justification of the morphotectonic scheme of Podillya development, connected with tectonic elevations of the Hologoro-Kremenets Ridge, which caused the current inclination of the Podolsk hills to Southeast-East; (6) Statement that the tectonic lines of Berdo-Nârul and Kovalivka-Smykivtsi characterize the Paleozoic Platform of Podillya as a typical tectonic horst; (7) Detailed description of the Dniester “rinyshcha” (alluvial deposits) with the Carpathian material present in Podniester, Opil and Podillya itself, which are present as a strip at a distance of 14-20 km from the modern Dniester river bed; (8) Based on literary sources and his own research, the scientist came to the conclusion that there is “eolian” loess in the “rinyshcha”, sands and alluvial clay; (9) It is argued that the old Nadnistryan rivers cannot be older than the planation surfaces of the Carpathians and Pre-Carpathians; (10) Formation of the Dniester valley pattern in Pliocene and Pleistocene, which determined the direction of the flows of the left tributaries and their capture by the Western (Zakhidny) Bug river sources. Finally, in his “Prerequisites for Studying Morphology of the Podilsky Catchment Area of the Dniester” S. Rudnitsky managed to use a complex morphogenetic approach to studying the region relief for the first time geomorphological literature: from standardized morphological descriptions through systematization of the morphological structure of the region to the historical genetic interpretation of the main features of relief morphology. Key words: morphological districts; Dniester catchment area (basin); Naddnistriansky “rinyshcha” (alluvial deposits); glacial erratic material; fluvia-glacial deposits; free and entrenched meanders; “horbovyna” (land surface with hills); Podillya.