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Figure 3: National Nature Landmark Sivá brada,
recent travertine formation (Photo J. Madarás).
the country, recognize the present physical
status of them, assess their scientific-educational
value and make recommendations
for geosite protection.
From 2008 to2011, the State Geological
Institute of Dionýz Štúr in Bratislava
(SGIDS) completed a geological project,
Database of important geological sites of the
Slovak Republic. The aim was to create an
open file of the sites of geological heritage.
By the end of November, 2011 the database
contained 479 sites, which have been
divided into 11 categories according to their
thematic scope. The database provided the
groundwork for a compilation of the Map of
important geological sites which has been
published on the SGIDS website http://www.
geology.sk/images/aktuality/vgl/VGL_map_eng.
jpg. In order to attract a wider professional
and amateur public we published information
on the project objectives in Enviromagazín
5, Edition 2008/13 (Liščák, 2008)
and we created a presentation poster for
the project; this poster we installed in the
Slovak National Museum, in the framework
of the exhibition “International Year
of Planet Earth”.
At the beginning of the project, a team of
11 main authors (editors) tackled various
special topics of the geological sites. It was
the task of the editors to propose a basic
set of sites of the geological heritage of the
Slovak Republic, on the basis of their own
expertise as well as the relevant literature, in
particular the Geological guides and Explanations
to geological maps at the scale 1:50
000, and also on the basis of consultations
with the wider community. The groundwork
also produced publications devoted
to these issues, mainly under the umbrella
of PROGEO (Wimbledon et al., 1998), or
others (Jeleň S. & Galvánek J., 2009, Liščák
et al., 2002). The criteria used for selection
of the geosites were as follows:
• representativeness and rarity
• degree of site protection
• visibility
• accessibility of the site.
The following team of specialists from
relevant geological organizations took part
in the project:
• 67 Sites of Paleozoic Metamorphites
(Prof. RNDr. Anna Vozárová,
DrSc**, co-author Ing. Zoltán
Németh, PhD*)
• 17 Sites of Magmatites and Tectonics
(RNDr. Ján Madarás, PhD*)
• 73 Mesozoic Sites (Doc. RNDr.
Roman Aubrecht, PhD**)
• 18 Palaeogene Sites (RNDr. Alexander
Nagy, CSc*, co-author Ing.
Martin Kováčik*)
• 17 Neogene Sites (RNDr. Alexander
Nagy, CSc*, co-authors RNDr. Ivan
Baráth, CSc*, RNDr. Adriena Zlinská,
PhD*)
• 90 Sites of Neogene Volcanites
(RNDr. Jaroslav Lexa, CSc***, coauthors
RNDr. Vlastimil Konečný,
CSc*, RNDr. Ladislav Šimon, PhD*);
• 38 Sites of Quaternary Sediments
(RNDr. Martina Moravcová (Ábelová),
PhD*, in 2010 she was substituted
by Mgr. Martin Vlačiky*);
• 27 Sites of Historical Mining (RNDr.
Daniel Ozdín, PhD**);
• 61 Mineralogical Sites (RNDr. Daniel
Ozdín, PhD**);
• 39 Hydrogeological Sites (RNDr.
Juraj Michalko, PhD*);
• 32 Geomorphological Sites (RNDr.
Pavel Liščák, CSc*) 1 .
We have received several suggestions
from professionals and the general public;
on the basis of these initiatives, we have
added extra geosites into the database.
The database groundwork was built up
from geological guides through Slovakia,
issued on the occasion of KBGA and IGC
events, as well as important monographs
(e.g. Mišík, 1976). Furthermore, the selection
of sites was based on the authors’
expertise as well as relevant literature. The
broad professional and amateur geological
community contributed significantly to the
creation of the databases.
During the project, geological sites of
a regional-geological, historical mining,
mineralogical, geomorphological and
hydrogeological nature were identified,
all with prime scientific (educational) and
aesthetical value and with the potential to
become integral parts of the Slovak, even
the European, geological heritage.
1 Note:
* SGIDS, State Geological Institute of Dionýz
Štúr
** PriF UK, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Comenius
University, Bratislava
*** GÚ SAV Geological Institute of the Slovak
Academy of Sciences
Figure 4a: View of andesite cliffs of lava flow with columnar jointing,
peak Štangarígeľ, Štiavnica Stratovolcano (Photo J. Lexa).
Figure 4b: Drawing of andesite cliffs of lava flow with columnar jointing, peak
Štangarígeľ, Štiavnica Stratovolcano (Author V. Konečný).
European Geologist 34 | November 2012
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