The petrographic garden in Zurawiec (Drawskie Lakeland, Central Pomerania)

Abstract

The contemporary landscape of Central Pomerania is highly geodiverse. Interesting examples of inanimate nature here mainly owe their existence here to the impact of the youngest Scandinavian Ice Sheet and its meltwaters (Plate 1). Within the area described there are forms connected genetically with other environments, such as the fl uvial, the fl uvioperiglacial and the limnic. Many of these are subject to geoconservation within National Parks, Landscape Parks, Documentation Sites and Nature Reserves, or else as Monuments of Nature. However, there are also still those waiting to be encompassed by supervision or restoration, and to be included on the list of natural heritage sites of national importance, like the Geoparks. To achieve this, special places important for inanimate nature called geosites have to be inventoried and made subject to a valuation procedure. It is upon this basis that a network of geosites is being formed, with the places of importance being linked together by geotrails and didactic trails. The fi nal step is then the preparation of a proposal that a Geopark be created. One of the geosites within the proposed "Valley of the Drawa and De{ogonek}bnica" Geopark will be the collection of 51 erratics present in the "petrographic garden" at Żurawiec, in the vicinity of Połczyn-Zdrój (Figs. 1 and 2). The collection consists of magmatic rocks (numbers: 1-26, 28-32, 38-41) and metamorphic rocks (numbers: 34-37, 42-46, 48-51). There are also two examples of sedimentary rocks - numbers: 33 and 47 (Table 1). The magmatic and metamorphic rocks derive from the Baltic Shield. The sedimentary outcrops are located within a plate built of Neoproterozoic, Lower Palaeozoic, Cretaceous and Palaeogene rocks (of the Baltic Sea, together with Gotland and the Oland Islands and Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania; Fig. 3). The benefi ts of the Żurawiec erratic collection (Plate 2) being incorporated into the Geopark in the Drawskie Lakeland will include promotion of the region's geological heritage (Fig. 3, Table 1), which improves awareness of the local geovalues among the local populace and tourists alike. A development of geotourism is to be anticipated. It will be a valuable alternative to mass tourism and will serve as a supplement to medical tourism in Połczyn-Zdrój (a spa-town).