Geotourism / Geoturystyka
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ISSN 1731-0830
e-ISSN: 2353-3641
Issue Date
2009
Volume
Number
No. 3 (18)
Description
Journal Volume
Geotourism / Geoturystyka
(2009)
Projects
Pages
Articles
The Starunia palaeontological site and idea of the Ukrainian-Polish trans-border geotourist trail »Traces of large extinct mammals, earth wax, oil and salt: from Starunia to Kraków«
(Wydawnictwa AGH, 2009) Kotarba, Maciej
The discovery of large Pleistocene mammals at the Starunia ozokerite (named also earth wax) mine (the Ukrainian Carpathians) was a spectacular scientific event on a world scale. The initial discovery was made in 1907 when relics of party preserved mammoth and woolly rhinoceros were excavated. Later, in 1929, the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences organized a scientific expedition to that site, which resulted in discovery of unique, nearly completely preserved woolly rhinoceros carcass embedded in Pleistocene sediments. A specific combination of brine, oil and clays into which the animal had sunk, is responsible for almost perfect preservation of this animal. The specimens found in 1907 are exhibited at the Natural History Museum in Lviv, Ukraine, whereas the unique specimen excavated in 1929 is displayed at the Natural History Museum in Kraków, Poland. The three sites: Starunia, a small Ukrainian village in which the geopark with the museum and the tourist centre are planned to be developed and two historical towns: Lviv and Kraków, closely connected with the discoveries of extinct large mammals, will be the key sites at the planned, Ukrainian-Polish trans-border geotourist trail »Traces of large extinct mammals, earth wax, oil and salt: from Starunia to Kraków«. The trail will also include the sites where occurrences of ozokerite, salt, brine and oil are known, i.e., the substances which preserved the animal carcasses. These are: the historical rock-salt mines in Wieliczka and Bochnia (Poland), Kalush and Stebnik (Ukraine), the Polish resorts - Iwonicz-Zdrój and Rymanów-Zdrój and the most famous Ukrainian resort - Truskavets, one of the oldest oilfields in the world - Bóbrka, where the Ignacy Łukasiewicz Memorial Open-Space Museum of Oil and Gas Industry is located and Boryslav oil and ozokerite field – the largest deposit in the Ukrainian Carpathians. The idea of Ukrainian-Polish trans-border tourist trail is strongly supported by geological, natural and cultural values of the Polish and the Ukrainian Carpathians.
Idea of the ecological and geological tourist centre in Starunia (Fore-Carpathian region, Ukraine)
(Wydawnictwa AGH, 2009) Adamenko, Oleg M.; Stelmakh, Orest R.; Zorin, Denis O.; Radlovska, Katya O.
In Starunia village ozokerite deposit was mined in the years 1868-1960. In 1907 remnants of woolly rhinoceros and mammoth were discovered in one of the shafts. A second discovery was made in 1929, in a special shaft digged by the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences, where remnants of three woolly rhinoceroses were found including one, a unique in the world, almost completely preserved specimen of this extinct species. In the 1970s, mud volcanoes were formed in relationship to seismic activity. In the vicinity of Starunia Paleolithic settlements were found of human population which might have inhabitated this area in the same period as large mammals. Geological, palaeontological and archaeological factors along with beautiful landscape of the Ukrainian Carpathian region make the Starunia village exceptional, world-class geotourist attraction. Hence, the concept of ecological and geological tourist centre has been proposed, located at the abandoned ozokerite mine in Starunia village.
Salt geology and mining traditions: Kalush and Stebnyk mines (Fore-Carpathian region, Ukraine)
(Wydawnictwa AGH, 2009) Bukowski, Krzysztof; Czapowski, Grzegorz
Development of industrial underground salt mining in western Ukraine has started in the mid-19th century with the discovery of large potash-magnesium salt deposits in Kalush (1854) and Stebnyk (1901). Potash salts concentrations occur within the Miocene sedimentary complexes of Ukrainian Carpathian Foredeep (correlated with the successions observed in the Polish part of Carpathian Foredeep) as isolated lenses or compressed folded layers of varied extent. Thickness of exploited potash seams varies from 4 m up to 150 m and the main mineral is sylvine, accompanied also by carnallite, kainite and langbeinite. Both Kalush and Stebnyk mines, now closed, belong to the first places in the world, where exploitation of potash salts were realized. Their unique historical character, documenting the salt exploitation traditions in this region and evolution of mining techniques, ought to be widely advertised as the valid points of Ukrainian-Polish cross-border geotouristic route, named »Traces of large extinct mammals, earth wax, oil and salt«.
The oil and ozokerite mine in Boryslav and historical monuments of petroleum and salt industries in the vicinity of Boryslav (Ukrainian Fore-Carpathian region)
(Wydawnictwa AGH, 2009) Radwański, Andrzej B.
The Boryslav region was one of the world largest petroleum basins, discovered in the second half of the 19th century. Situated southwest from Drohobych, it includes several localities: Boryslav - Tustanovychi - Mraznytsa - Banya Kotyvska with their rich and long history of brine and salt industry dating back to the 12th century. Rapid development of mining activity has commenced with the implementation of the new, Canadian method of drilling for oil by the Canadian MacGarvey Company. The decisive date in the activity of the MacGarvey Company was 1893 when exploration drilling for oil commenced in Boryslav and then, in 1895, in Tustanovychi. Discovery of an oilfield in Boryslav was the beginning of the »golden age« of the oil industry in the Fore-Carpathian region and many people amassed fortunes. From the geological point of view, the Boryslav region covers the three Carpathian structural units: Skyba (Skole), Boryslav-Pokuttya and Sambir (Stebnik). The Boryslav-Pokuttya Unit is the main oil reservoir in the Ukrainian Carpathians with multiayered oilfields, including the largest one - Boryslav. In this region ozokerite deposits are also known, hosted in the salt-bearing Lower Miocene Vorotyscha Beds. The city of Drohobych has become famous for its long tradition of salt trade. In the 19th century the period of rapid development started when the oil industry flourished in the vicinity, although the town was still in the shadow of Boryslav. The city of Truskavets, the famous health resort, has several mineral waters, also related to the oilfields, including the famous »Naftusia« spring. Another interesting site is Urych – the place where patients from the Truskavets resort travelled in order to admire scenic crags of the Yamna Sandstones and ruins of the Tustan Castle. The region of Boryslav and its surroundings was the site of the most effective petroleum exploitation in the territory of Poland in the past. This place is connected with the activity of Stanisław Szczepanowski (1846-1900), pioneer of oil industry and industrialization of the Galicia province.
The Starunia collections in the Natural History Museum of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine in Lviv
(Wydawnictwa AGH, 2009) Chornobay, Yuriy M.; Drygant, Daniel M.
In the Natural History Museum of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine in Lviv there is a collection of a famous Pleistocene mammoth and a woolly rhinoceros, the so-called »first rhinoceros« from Starunia. The mammoth and the first rhinoceros were found 102 years ago, on 5th October and 6th November, 1907, respectively, in a shaft of an ozokerite (earth wax) mine near Starunia village (the Eastern Carpathians). The discovery of large Pleistocene mammals in Starunia was a spectacular, worldfamous scientific event. Beside the mammoth and the rhinoceros, many specimens of Pleistocene flora and fauna from Starunia and other places of the Fore-Carpathian region are exhibited in the Lviv Natural History Museum.