Natural monument ”Ostrov Gustoy” description and photo - Russia - Leningrad region: Vyborgsky district (Topic)

Natural monument "Gusty Island" description and photo - Russia - Leningrad region: Vyborgsky district. Detailed information about the attraction. Description, photos and a map showing the nearest significant objects.

Photo and description

The natural monument "Ostrov Gustoy" is located in the Vyborgsky district, 2 km west of the city of Vysotsk, 7 km from Vyborg to the southwest.
"Island Gustoy" organized as a regional geological natural monument in 1976. Its area is 54 hectares. The purpose of creating a natural monument is to preserve the original forms of relief: `` lamb's foreheads '' and unique outcrops of rapakivi granites to the surface. Specially protected objects on the territory of the “Gustoy Island” are the relief of “sheep's foreheads” and granite-rapakivi.

"Lamb's foreheads" are rocks smoothed by the movement of the glacier, which are made of bedrock protruding to the surface. Especially smooth and gentle are the slopes that were facing the direction of the glacier movement, the slopes on the other side are often steep and uneven. Groups of small "sheep's foreheads" are also called curly rocks. Sheep foreheads are found in the mainland and mountain zones of ancient and modern glaciation. "Lamb foreheads" are especially common on the territory of the Baltic Shield.

Rapakivi granite (translated from Finnish "rotten, crumbling stone") is a type of granite, a rock with an acidic composition. Rapakivi granite consists of 40% orthoclase, 30% idiomorphic quartz, 20% oligoclase. also contains a small amount of admixtures of accessory minor minerals (2%), such as amphibole, ortite, diopside, sphene, apatite, magnetite, etc. On the rapakivi cut, the coarse grain of this granite is clearly visible. In terms of durability, it is much inferior to samples of fine-grained granite. This type of granite can be colored in different shades of brownish-pink, sometimes greenish, reddish and black rapakivi can be found. In addition to the Leningrad region and Karelia, rapakivi granite is widespread in Finland, Sweden, and Ukraine (Cherkasy region). By the way, the Alexander Column and the monolith under the "Bronze Horseman" are made of this stone.

The territory of the natural monument "Thick Island" is promising for ecological tourism, as a separate object, as well as for organizing tourist routes along protected natural monuments of the water area of the Gulf of Finland and the Karelian Isthmus.

Island Dense in plan has the shape of a horseshoe. The northwestern part of the island is a granite rock about 30 m high, stretching for half a kilometer and smoothed by a glacier - a gentle slope of "sheep's foreheads". The eastern coast of the Gustoy Island is steep (the height of the cliff is about 20 m). This is due to tectonic disruption. Polished rocks can be found in other parts of the Thick Island. On their surface, large ovoids are clearly distinguished - rounded crystals of feldspar, bordered by crystals of mica and quartz, which are typical of rapakivi granites.

A picturesque bay juts out into the center of the dense island - a favorite place for yachtsmen. Water spaces and many wooded islands with rocks, indented coastline, "lamb's foreheads", long and narrow bays - all this forms a picturesque landscape of skerries that distinguishes the northern coast of Scandinavia and is not typical for other parts of the Leningrad region.

It is forbidden to mine and mine granite on the territory of the natural monument,

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Topic: Natural monument ”Ostrov Gustoy” description and photo - Russia - Leningrad region: Vyborgsky district.