Geosites of International Significance in the UNESCO WHS Lena Pillars Nature Park (Sakha Republic, Russia)

摘要

The Lena Pillars Nature Park belonging to the Sakha Republic (Yakutiya) is situated in the southeastern Siberian Platform on the right bank of the middle Lena River. The park is mainly known for the almost continuous chain of fancy pillar-like carbonate weathering outliers spreading along the right bank of the Lena River and banks of its tributaries Botoma and Sinyaya. However, the main reason of the ultimate importance of the park is that it represents a pivotal evidence of relatively rapid evolutionary development and growth of the skeleton and soft-bodied fauna and algae diversity, which took place about 541–509Ma ago. This event is well known in the scientific world as the "Cambrian Explosion". The International Union of Nature Conservation included it into the list of key evolutionary events in the Earth's history. Numerous geosites of different types and significance levels are located in the park, and six of them are of international importance. They are highly representative in terms of stratigraphy, paleontology, paleoecology, and geomorphology. Stratigraphic geosites demonstrate nearly a continuous record of the Upper Ediacaran–Middle Cambrian deposits. Before the 1990s, stratotypes of the Lower Cambrian stages were used for standardization of the Lower Cambrian in the International Stratigraphic Chart. Paleontological geosites are mainly represented by fossil localities of the Early Cambrian, characterized by high level of preservation and diversity. Sinsk localities of the Early Cambrian biota are listed among the Cambrian Lagerst?ttens. Many geosites are objects of paleoecological investigations because their deposits were formed in synchronously existing parts of a former single paleobasin (inner lagoon, transitional reef, and outer abyssal) with different physical and chemical parameters. Geomorphologic sites represent different types of permafrost karst, as well as weathering outliers of columnar shape, the so-called Lena Pillars. The scientific and aesthetic value of the Lena Pillars Nature Park is globally recognized, and in 2012 it was inscribed into UNESCO WHL based on the criteria vii and viii.