Browsing by Author "Muszer, Antoni"

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Evaluation of the geotouristic attractions from the Wojcieszów area
(Wydawnictwa AGH, 2017) Muszer, Jolanta; Muszer, Antoni
The paper presents the results of geological and landscape studies in the Wojcieszów area (the Kaczawskie Mountains), which include investigation, inventory, documentation and a first of its kind evaluation of its geotourism objects. This area has high values of the natural environment and a rich geodiversity associated with a complicated geological structure (the Kaczawa unit, the metamorphic Kaczawa Complex). Some of the anthropogenic activities (mining), which have revealed interesting fragments of the geological structure, have also influenced the increase of geotourism attractions in this area. The area is one of the best examples of the region in the Sudetes, where economic considerations predominate over the protection of the natural environment. Since the 16th century, the crystalline Wojcieszów limestone was mined in numerous quarries (e.g. Silesia, Gruszka, Połom, and Miłek). In the limestone, intensive karst processes occurred mainly in the Paleogene (numerous caves and speleothems). As a result of economic activity, some of the caves had been permanently destroyed and the former »Połom« nature reserve was liquidated in the late 1970s. Currently, the only nature reserve is the »Góra Miłek in Wojcieszów«. The area around Wojcieszów is rich in numerous quarries, where other construction materials were obtained (e.g. phyllites, greenschists, and metarhyodacites). Since the 12th to 20th centuries, copper ore was also exploited (adits and shafts) in the Żeleźniak massif (east of Wojcieszów in the Radzimowice area). In the 20th century, uranium ore was mined at t Chmielarz Hill adit. Recently, the Cambrian limestones (Połom) and Quaternary deposits (Okrajnik, Stara Kraśnica) have been exploited. Paradoxically, economic activity, which caused destruction of some protected objects, has also enriched the geodiversity the Wojcieszów region. The results of the evaluation proved the signififificant geotouristic potential of the studied area. The most attractive geosites around Wojcieszów demonstrate typical lithologies of the Kaczawa Succession and depict the pre-Variscan geological evolution of the area.