"This would be a tremendous honour; another Polish site would join the prestigious group of UNESCO Geoparks," Katarzyna Szadkowska of Poland’s Geological Institute (PIG-PIB) was quoted as saying.
The likelihood of the Land of Extinct Volcanoes (Kraina Wygasłych Wulkanów) making it onto the new UNESCO list was assessed as very high.
As reported by the PIG-PIB, the geopark, which is located in the mountainous Western Sudetes, a subprovince on the borders of the Czech Republic, Poland and Germany, "has undergone a lengthy certification process and been favourably evaluated."
The Land of Extinct Volcanoes, covering an area of 1,300 km², is rich in traces of the region’s geological history, spanning 500 million years, according to PAP.
As its name indicates, “the place is primarily about ancient volcanoes, or rather, remnants of volcanic activity preserved to varying degrees in rocks and minerals,” Szadkowska said.
These remains originate from not one, but three episodes of volcanic activity, separated by hundreds of millions of years," she added.
She told the PAP news agency on Tuesday that the site had all the chances of becoming a perfect destination for study tours or family outings as "volcanoes capture the imagination and attract tourists."
So far, Poland has two sites entered into the UNESCO World Geoparks list: the Muskau Bend Landscape Park (Park Krajobrazowy Łuk Mużakowa) on the Polish-German border, established in 2001, and the Świętokrzyski Geopark, listed since 2021.
New additions to the UNESCO Global Geoparks list are set to be announced on March 27.
(mo/gs)
Source: PAP