The Gornaya Shoria megaliths, meaning Mountain Shoria megaliths, are rock formations found within the Mountain Shoria (
Gornaya Shoriya)() region that comprises the southern part of
Kemerovo Oblast
Kemerovo Oblast — Kuzbass (russian: Ке́меровская о́бласть — Кузба́сс, translit=Kemerovskaya oblast — Kuzbass, ), also known simply as Kemerovo Oblast (russian: Ке́меровская о́бласть, label=non ...
in southern
Siberia
Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive region, geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a ...
,
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...
.
[Куприянов А.Н., 2007. ''Наш дом – Горная Шория: учебное пособие (Our house: Mountain Shoria: Textbook)(In Russian)''. Кемеровская область, город Кемерово, CREOO "Irbis", 164 pp.][Егорова, Н. Т., Евтушик, Н. Г., Багмет, Г. Н., и Удодов, Ю.В., 2018, ''Физическая география Кемеровской области: учебное пособие (Physical geography of the Kemerovo region:'' textbook)(In Russian). Новокузнецк, Кемеровский гос. ун-т, Новокузнецкий ин-т (фил.). 263 pp. ISBN 978-5-8353-2007-3.] The Gornaya Shoria megaliths, also known as the Surak-Kuilum megalithic complex and by other names, form the ridgecrests and summit of Mount Kuylyum (Kuilum, Kulyum)(), in elevation. The base of this mountain is located 8 km away from the village of Orton (). Mount Kuylyum is part of the Kulyum-Surak granite massif in the Shoria Mountains. The ridgecrests and summits of this massif ranges in elevation between .
[Беспалов А.Г., Астахов С.Е., и Амелин И.И., 2016, ''Мегалиты горы Куйлюм (Горная Шория) (Megaliths of the Kuiljum Mountains (Shoria Mountains))''(In Russian), cc. 125-129. ''Возможности развития краеведения и ту ризма Сибирского региона и сопредель ных территорий, Сборник материалов XVI Международной научно-практической конференции, посвященной памяти Почетного председателя ТОО РГО, профессора Петра Андреевича Окишева.'' Томск, Томская область, Россия, Томский государственный университет. c. 410. ISBN 978-5-9908506-9-9]
Fringe articles have claimed these rock formations are gigantic prehistoric man-made blocks, or
megalith
A megalith is a large stone that has been used to construct a prehistoric structure or monument, either alone or together with other stones. There are over 35,000 in Europe alone, located widely from Sweden to the Mediterranean sea.
The ...
s.
Geologic mapping of ridgecrests and summit of Mount Kuylyum by geologists, which was conducted in the late 1990s, identified these rock formations as ''denudated prepared ridges'' (), which are ridges created by the natural and differential erosion of local bedrock.
[Федерального агентства по недропользованию, 2001. ''Карта четвертичных отложений (Map of Quaternary Formations)'' (In Russian). масштаба 1: 200,000, Издание второе, Кузбасская серия, N-45-XXIХ (Усть-Кабырза)]
Theories on formation
Russian popular articles have reported that scientists have proposed the rock formation to be the result of geological processes associated with the intense weathering of the rock composing Mount Shoriya.
[Anonymous, ]
''На юге Кузбасса найден "сибирский Стоунхендж"''.
at InfoSibnet dated 2013, accessed 22 August 2014[Балаева, Е]
at Smart News dated June 21, 2014, accessed 22 August 2014 Both
tectonic
Tectonics (; ) are the processes that control the structure and properties of the Earth's crust and its evolution through time. These include the processes of mountain building, the growth and behavior of the strong, old cores of continents ...
forces acting on deeply buried
bedrock and pressure release that occurs within nearsurface bedrock as it is uplifted and eroded commonly form rectangular, block-like, rock formations that consist of
jointed rock
Rock most often refers to:
* Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids
* Rock music, a genre of popular music
Rock or Rocks may also refer to:
Places United Kingdom
* Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...
.
[J. Ehlen, "Jointing" In S.A. Goudie, ed., ''Encyclopedia of Geomorphology'' volume 2 J–Z (New York: Routledge New York, 2014), pp. 578, 579-580 ] Tectonic forces acting on deeply buried massive bedrock, such as
granite
Granite () is a coarse-grained ( phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies under ...
, and pressure release as this bedrock is uncovered by erosion, can create sets of joints which are known as ''orthogonal joint sets'', that intersect at nearly 90 degrees. Orthogonal joint sets quite often result in the formation of rock formations that are comparable in size and shape to the blocks shown in pictures of the alleged ''megaliths.''
[G. H. Davis, S. J. Reynolds, and C. Kluth ''Structural Geology of Rocks and Regions'' (John Wiley and Sons, Inc., New York, New York, 3rd edition, 2012, ), p. 864][B. A. van der Pluijm and S. Marshak, ''Earth structure : an introduction to structural geology and tectonics'' (W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., New York, 2nd edition, 2004), 672 pp. 10110 ]
It is quite common for
spheroidal weathering
Spheroidal weathering is a form of chemical weathering that affects jointed bedrock and results in the formation of concentric or spherical layers of highly decayed rock within weathered bedrock that is known as ''saprolite.'' When saprolite ...
, a form of chemical
weathering
Weathering is the deterioration of rocks, soils and minerals as well as wood and artificial materials through contact with water, atmospheric gases, and biological organisms. Weathering occurs ''in situ'' (on site, with little or no movement) ...
, to occur as
groundwater
Groundwater is the water present beneath Earth's surface in rock and soil pore spaces and in the fractures of rock formations. About 30 percent of all readily available freshwater in the world is groundwater. A unit of rock or an unconsolidated ...
circulates through orthogonal joint sets in the near-surface.
[D. T. Nicholson, "Speroidal weathering." In S.A. Goudie, ed., ''Encyclopedia of Geomorphology'', volume 2 J–Z (Routledge New York, New York, 2004, ), p. 992,] This process results in the alteration and disintegration of bedrock adjacent to the joints. The preferential removal of weathered bedrock by erosion creates often creates bedrock blocks, which are called corestones. These bedrock blocks commonly have rounded corners and are separated from each other by cracks of variable size. Such corestones form both hills and mountains composed of exposed and rectangular blocks of jointed bedrock that are comparable to the rock formations found in the Mountain Shoriya. These hills and mountains are known as either
''tors'' or ''koppies''.
[ Piotr Migon, ''Granite Landscapes of the World'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006 ), p. 384]Charles Rowland Twidale
Charles Rowland Twidale is an Australian geomorphologist active at the University of Adelaide. Twidale's research has covered varied subjects including structural geomorphology, weathering, ancient landscapes in shield regions, granite landform ...
, and J. R. Vidal Romaní (2005) ''Landforms and Geology of Granite Terrains'' (London: Taylor & Francis Group plc, ), p. 351
Notes
{{coord, 53, 15, 6.44, N, 88, 32, 37.20, E, region:RU-KEM_type:mountain_source:kolossus-dewiki, display=title
Shoria
Landforms of Kemerovo Oblast