SoÄŸuksu Nature Park (), established in 2011, is a
nature park
A nature park, or sometimes natural park, is a designation for a protected area by means of long-term land planning, sustainable resource management and limitation of agricultural and real estate developments. These valuable landscapes are pres ...
in
Eastern Anatolia Region
The Eastern Anatolia region () is a geographical region of Turkey. The most populous province in the region is Van Province. Other populous provinces are Malatya, Erzurum and Elazığ.
It is bordered by the Black Sea Region and Georgia in th ...
of Turkey. It is located far from
Kars
Kars ( or ; ; ) is a city in northeast Turkey. It is the seat of Kars Province and Kars District.Ä ...
and to
Sarıkamış
Sarıkamış or Sarikamish (, ) is a town in Kars Province in the Eastern Anatolia Region of Turkey. It is the seat of Sarıkamış District.
The nature park covers an area of at above main sea level.
Geology
The area in and around of the nature park consists of
basalt
Basalt (; ) is an aphanite, aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the planetary surface, surface of a terrestrial ...
Tertiary
Tertiary (from Latin, meaning 'third' or 'of the third degree/order..') may refer to:
* Tertiary period, an obsolete geologic period spanning from 66 to 2.6 million years ago
* Tertiary (chemistry), a term describing bonding patterns in organic ch ...
and
Quaternary
The Quaternary ( ) is the current and most recent of the three periods of the Cenozoic Era in the geologic time scale of the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS), as well as the current and most recent of the twelve periods of the ...
period
Period may refer to:
Common uses
* Period (punctuation)
* Era, a length or span of time
*Menstruation, commonly referred to as a "period"
Arts, entertainment, and media
* Period (music), a concept in musical composition
* Periodic sentence (o ...
s. Additionally,
tuff
Tuff is a type of rock made of volcanic ash ejected from a vent during a volcanic eruption. Following ejection and deposition, the ash is lithified into a solid rock. Rock that contains greater than 75% ash is considered tuff, while rock co ...
breccia
Breccia ( , ; ) is a rock composed of large angular broken fragments of minerals or Rock (geology), rocks cementation (geology), cemented together by a fine-grained matrix (geology), matrix.
The word has its origins in the Italian language ...
are present.
Flora
The nature park features forest stand of
Scots pine
''Pinus sylvestris'', the Scots pine (UK), Scotch pine (US), Baltic pine, or European red pine is a species of tree in the pine family Pinaceae that is native to Eurasia. It can readily be identified by its combination of fairly short, blue-gr ...
(''Pinus sylvestris''). In the areas between the forest stands,
quaking aspen
''Populus tremuloides'' is a deciduous tree native to cooler areas of North America, one of several species referred to by the common name aspen. It is commonly called quaking aspen,
(''Populus tremula'') grow. Othercommon plants are
rose hip
The rose hip or rosehip, also called rose haw and rose hep, is the accessory fruit of the various species of rose plant. It is typically red to orange, but ranges from dark purple to black in some species. Rose hips begin to form after pollina ...
and
buttercup
''Ranunculus'' is a large genus of about 1750 species of flowering plants in the family Ranunculaceae. Members of the genus are known as buttercups, spearworts and water crowfoots.
The genus is distributed worldwide, primarily in temperate an ...
(''Ranunculus acris'').
Climate
The climate in the park shows characteristics of harsh continental climate. Long lasting winters are snowy, frostyand very cold. In winter time, more precipitation falls than in the summer period. The highest precipitation occurs just before the summer begins.