What is a boulder? Is this material of natural or artificial origin? What does it look like, where is it used? In this article you will find answers to all these questions. In addition, here we will talk about one of the most unusual objects of the Belarusian capital.
Boulder - what is it?
Various exogenous forces are constantly "working" on the appearance of the earth's surface: wind, water, air, glaciers. As a result of all these impacts, solid masses of rocks are gradually destroyed, forming clastic material of various sizes and characteristics - pebbles, gravel, crushed stone, sand, gravelite and others. A boulder is one of the varieties of clastic rocks. It will be discussed in our article.
What is a boulder? This is a fairly well-rounded block of rock, the diameter of which (along the long axis) exceeds 256 millimeters. The shape of the boulder, as a rule, is round, or close to it. The roundness of these boulders may be due to corrosion, water or glacial erosion.
Boulder stones differ from each other in shape, size and color. Alldepends on what rock they are composed of, what were the conditions of their direct formation. Most often, quartz, sandstone and granite boulders are found in nature.
Main types of boulders
Based on the genesis (origin), all boulders are divided into several types.
- Alluvial - rock fragments formed by permanent natural streams.
- Proluvial - stone deposits that accumulate at the foot of mountain ranges as a result of weathering products washed off the slopes.
- Colluvial - boulders and blocks formed as a result of landslides or mountain talus.
- Erratic - fragments of rocks carried away by a glacier at considerable distances from their "geological homeland". This is the most common group of boulders. They can be found in large numbers in Scotland, Canada, Poland, Latvia, Altai.
The largest boulder in the world is located in the Mojave Desert (USA). The height of this solid stone giant is about 15 meters. The place where the stone lies has long been considered mystical. Many prominent personalities have been here more than once, in particular, the famous inventor Nikola Tesla.
Boulders are now widely used in the construction of residential buildings, river dams and foundations, for finishing walls and pools. They are indispensable for strengthening earthen slopes and embankments. A natural boulder is a landscape designer's best friend! With it, you can equip a beautiful "alpine hill" in the garden, or cover up an unsightlymanhole.
Museum of Boulders in Minsk
The importance of these stones for studying the geological history of the region was first realized by Belarusian scientists. In 1976, they established a scientific expedition, which collected more than two thousand boulders from different parts of Belarus. All of them were collected in one place - a park on the eastern outskirts of Minsk.
The Museum of Boulders in the Belarusian capital is unique in its kind. After all, here you can not only get interesting information about certain rocks. Unusual and the very territory of the museum, which exactly repeats the physical map of Belarus. The state border of the country is marked by low shrubs. Paths and paths are the main rivers of the republic, and mounds are its hills.
Another curious fact: all the boulders of the Minsk open-air museum are located exactly in those places of the "map" from where they were brought back by geologists.
