by Vladimir SHATKO, Cand. Sc. (Biol.), senior researcher, N. V. Tsitsin Botanical Gardens, Russian Academy of Sciences; Liudmila MIRONOVA, Cand. Sc. (Biol.), senior researcher, Karadag Nature Preserve, National Academy of Sciences, Ukraine The eastern part of the Crimea, the legendary Cimmeria where mountain ranges of the Caucasus and the Balkans rub shoulders, is a wonderful land. Here, at the boundary of land and sea, mounts and dales, forests and steppes, rises a spectacular natural wonderwork, the ancient volcano Karadag. A mere dot on the map of the Crimean Peninsula, Karadag ushers us into a magic world of lush forests and variegated plains, all that against a backdrop of the blue with cliffs and coves... Whatever vade-mecum over the Crimea you take, the Number One sight shall always be Karadag. Everything is without peer there-from fantastic landscapes, fabulous mineral wealth and plant and animal kingdoms to the microclimate and monuments of history and culture. We don't think you can find any place on earth where an area of a little more than 20 sq. km could boast of such riches. This site, for one, has the only active volcano, Karadag, if we take a large territory in and around the Russian Plain in Eastern Europe - a volcano dating from the Jurassic period. Its multiple craters have blown up time and again. Originally these craters were under water, but then the volcano's ejectamenta combined in giving rise to an island shaken by so many eruptions. All that went on for millions and millions of years. The Karadag landscapes enable us to "read" the chronicle of our planet over 150 mln years, with sheets of lava, dykes, volcanic bombs, crevices, and the remains of several craters from which the hot lava gushed out onto the surface. Karadag has even a magnetic anomaly of its own, hence a mountain range dubbed Magnitny, which means "magnetic". The cumulative effects of wind, rain, heat and cold finished the job begun by underground forces to make Karadag w ... Читать далее