Dmitry A. Ruban’s research while affiliated with Southern Adventist University and other places

Geosites are sources of the knowledge of diverse geological phenomena, including carbonate rocks. The Sakhray Canyon geosite represents several geological features of the Western Caucasus. Field and laboratory investigations indicated on its lateral differences. Four segments of the geosite, five entrance points, and five principal localities were established. This geosite represents Carboniferous granitoids and seven Lower Triassic–Middle Jurassic sedimentary packages. Particularly, the latter include Lower Triassic deep-marine platy limestones, Upper Triassic relatively shallow- or deep-marine reefal limestones, and Middle Jurassic shallow-marine encrinites. These carbonate packages correspond to the early–middle Mesozoic episodes of global carbonate sedimentation. This study permitted to characterize configuration, visibility, scenery, infrastructure, and accessibility of the segments of the Sakhray Canyon geosite and to prove its importance to the international geological research.

Lakes contribute to sustainable development of cities, but they also experience anthropogenic stress. Microplastic pollution of urban lakes has been studied actively in the past decade, and this knowledge needs systematization. A major bibliographical database “Scopus” was used to find the relevant literature. The location of lakes, sampled objects (water, bottom sediment, ice and snow, fish) and concentrations (also abundances) of microplastics, and supposed sources of pollution were established in the considered works. The urban lakes, where microplastics were studied, concentrate in Asia (Middle East, South and East Asia). Particularly, the published knowledge from such mega-cities as Chennai (India) and Wuhan (China) is abundant. Microplastics were studied chiefly in water and bottom sediment of lakes. Although their concentrations vary significantly, a wide presence of microplastics in urban lakes is evident. A challenge of this review was a selection of the sources where true urban lakes are mentioned. Open-access international databases summarizing raw data on microplastics in lakes from as much cities and countries as possible will be demanded in the future.

Museums help to conserve regional heritage and sustain regional identity, which is especially important in large countries. Russian regional museums constitute a whole phenomenon. Indeed, this phenomenon is a large field for research, and it cannot be comprehended by any single study. This is why attention should be paid for its particular aspects such as a historical dynamics of the expansion of regional museums in Russia. The information from the official websites of 76 regional museums sensu stricto of the entire country and 10 smaller museums of the Vologda Region was analyzed to measure the dynamics of their foundation and the relative importance of the different founders. It was established that regional museums were created in the Imperial, Soviet, and Modern periods of the Russian history, and the majority of them appeared in 1861–1935. Governmental founders prevailed, although private and societal initiatives also mattered, especially in the particular time slices. The smaller museums of the Vologda Region were created chiefly in the Soviet period, and both governmental and private initiatives were important. The results of this analysis were interpreted regarding attention to the broad public education and activity of so-called intelligentsia in the late Imperial and Soviet periods. It is hypothesized that the regional museum foundation can be brought in correspondent to the idea of a wise state and society development. Importantly, major transformations of the Russian society (particularly, in the beginning of the 20th century) did not interrupt the expansion of regional museums. It is proposed that the existing national network of regional museums itself has a heritage value, which can be important to tourism development.

Tourist activities have become so extensive to make reasonable their consideration in the context of environmental geochemistry. The present work focuses on molybdenum and aims at tracing its relationship with tourism. A coincidence of molybdenum production, high number of international tourist arrivals, and molybdenum pollution is several countries indicates on the importance of the noted relationship. The bibliographical survey allowed to find journal articles considering molybdenum and tourism and to delineate three major themes and seven topics reflecting this relationship. In this literature, the biggest attention was paid to the molybdenum pollution in touristic environments. Some articles indicate on the use of this metal in the tourism industry or imply that tourism is a source of molybdenum pollution. The geography of these studies is rather broad. Nonetheless, the established topics and themes need further developments, and several knowledge gaps are outlined. Scientists are called to pay more attention to molybdenum cycling in touristic environments and, more generally, to geochemical aspects of tourism.

In the current Special Issue, we present a collection of articles that delve into the marine environment, including depositional and diagenetic controls, geochemistry, and the economic potentiality of marine deposits worldwide. The published papers included in this Special Issue also fill in some of the knowledge gaps on geological oceanography, such as the initial oceanization to seafloor hydrothermal activity and from very ancient tsunamis to plastic cycling in modern seashore environments. As we reflect on the wealth of insights presented in this Special Issue, it is evident that the study of the marine environment remains a dynamic and multifaceted field ripe for future exploration. By continuing to unravel the complexities of such environments and addressing key knowledge gaps, we can better understand past environmental changes, decipher the geological evolution, and inform future research endeavors.

Marine geology is a well-known [...]

Territorial inventories of geosites remain on the international agenda, and they can help in acquiring information for solving pure geological research tasks. New field investigations in the northern part of Mountainous Adygeya (geoheritage-rich territory in the western Greater Caucasus) permitted us to extend our knowledge of its geosites. Five geosites were described qualitatively and assessed semi-quantitatively, namely the Polkovnitskaya River Valley (ammonite-bearing concretions of Aptian glauconitic sandstones), the Little Khadzhokh River Valley (Aptian glauconitic sandstones with fossils and trace fossils), the Shakhan and Middle Khadzhokh River Valley (Upper Jurassic variegated siliciclastics, Hauterivian fluvial and deltaic sandstones, mixed ancient and modern clastic material), the Big Khadzhoh Waterfall (splendid waterfall and exposures of locally folded Oxfordian–Kimmeridgian limestones), and the Verblyud Mountain (small, camel-shaped cuesta’s remnant). They were ranked nationally (one geosite), regionally (three geosites), and locally (one geosite). Close examination of the considered geosites permitted to register pure geological peculiarities (changes in the dip direction between sedimentary packages), which indicate the tectonic activity across the Jurassic–Cretaceous transition. Additionally, complex accessibility patterns were established in some geosites, and these patterns should be addressed in further refinements of the semi-quantitative approaches to geosite assessment.

Granitoids are known to crop out on ancient seashores, but the related geological evidence remains limited. The information from the Western Caucasus sheds light on the stratigraphical distribution of coarse siliciclastic beds associated with late Carboniferous granitoids of the Dakh, Rafabgo, and Sakhray crystalline massifs. For the purposes of this study, the available information was reviewed and verified against the modern stratigraphical scales. It is established that the considered coarse sisliciclastic beds occur at five stratigraphical levels of the Triassic–Jurassic succession. A rocky seashore with granitoid exposures existed for a short time around the Sakhray and probably Rufabgo massifs at the very beginning of the Triassic. The Dakh Massif possessed such a shore twice (at least), i.e., in the Norian–Rhaetian and the Early Toarcian. However, it cannot be excluded that rocky shores persisted there for >50 Ma. Generally, the Western Caucasus provides an example of granitoid exposures on Mesozoic seashores and adds knowledge of the global distribution of rocky shores in the Triassic and Jurassic periods.

Geological and geomorphological heritage (geoheritage) has many aspects, some of which are yet to be fully understood. Particularly, a scientific value of geo(morpho)sites is defined differently and established with not fully satisfying approaches. The attention to the El-Medallat hills, which are a group of small inselbergs in the southern Western Desert of Egypt, required the development of a new approach to focus on a scientific utility. The latter is not equated to the total value of geo(morpho)sites and their scientific value. The El-Medallat hills are put into the context of the international research in inselbergs. The relevant journal articles were collected, and the information from them was extracted to understand the relation of the El-Medallat hills to geographical and lithological foci of the international research in inselbergs. It is established that inselbergs were rarely reported from the Saharan domain of Africa, and sandstone inselbergs were studied much less intensively than granite ones. These lines of evidence imply the relatively high scientific utility of the El-Medallat geomorphosite due to its location in the Saharan domain of Africa and sandstone composition. The proposed approach is distinguished by an emphasis on research potential of geo(morpho)sites in the light of the international research experience.