Гаршин Д. И., Гаршина Ю. В., Долотов Ю. А., Неходцев В. А. Подземные Съяновские каменоломни (Московская область) // Вестник Рязанского государственного университета имени С. А. Есенина. 2021. № 1 (70). С. 145–162. DOI: 10.37724/RSU.2021.70.1.015., 2021
В Южном Подмосковье до сих пор сохранилось несколько десятков разветвленных подземных заброшенных... more В Южном Подмосковье до сих пор сохранилось несколько десятков разветвленных подземных заброшенных каменоломен, которые обнаруживают и посещают энтузиасты и которые являются объектами спелеотуризма. Протяженность некоторых из них превышает 3–5 км. В настоящее время эти объекты не являются учтенными месторождениями и расположены, как правило, под деревнями. В статье раскрыты геолого-тектонические, геоморфологические и социально-исторические предпосылки развития подземной камнедобычи в нижнем течении реки Пахра. На основе архивных материалов и преимущественно дореволюционных изданий реконструирована история заложения и развития крупнейших подземных каменоломен Московской области ― Съяновских. Установлено, что добыча в каменоломнях велась с начала XVII по конец XIX века. Описано современное состояние подземных горных выработок. Приведена краткая история туристического освоения Съяновских каменоломен.
In the south of the Moscow Region, there are still some dozens of abandoned underground quarries whose forked tunnels still attract enthusiasts and speleo-tourists. Some underground quarries extend over more than 3–5 kilometres. Nowadays, these objects are no longer registered as quarries and are often situated under villages. The article treats geological, tectonic, geomorphological, social and historical prerequisites for the development of underground quarries in the lower flow of the Pakhra River. The author analyzes archival materials and pre-revolutionary publications to reconstruct the history of the Syanovskiye Quarries , the largest underground quarries in the Moscow region. The article maintains that the exploitation of the quarries started in the early 17th century, the quarries were closed in the late 19th centuries. The article describes the present state of the quarries and contains a brief history of tourism-related development of the quarries.
Uploads
Papers by Юрий Долотов
Venyov district is situated in about 150 kilometers to the south of Moscow. Lower Carboniferous limestones lay near the surface there. They fit well for construction needs. It is supposed that limestone production in the vicinity of Venyov started in the 16th century along with Tula defensive structures construction.
Large peasant quarries operated on the banks of the Osyotr river by the end of the 19th century. A quarry system situated near Byakovo village is the largest known peasant quarry in Central Russia. The Byakovo quarry system is a combination of several quarries, randomly connected to each other and forming a complex labyrinth structure. Its total length is more than 40000 meters.
The history of limestone production in Venyov district is described in the paper, based on archive and literary sources. Known underground quarry cavities are described following the modern spelestological zoning scheme (Spelestology is a term for speleology and caving in artificial underground cavities, used in Russia and several other countries). The authors also tried to restore the limestone production technological process of the 19th century, based on several remains and archive sources.
A spelestological zoning scheme, based on the six-level hierarchic classification, is proposed in this paper.
The artificial underground cavities, being the subject matter of the spelestology, are known as the signs of the technological influence on the geological environment, and the underground space development technologies are described as part of the culture.
The principles of distinguishing spelestological taxon units of the two higher levels (spelestological lands and provinces) are also described. How to deal with underground objects construction is mainly determined by civilizations and local cultures mentalities. It can be seen in specific methods of underground space development and the history of mining. The spelestological lands borders are mainly determined by civilizations development areas. Either local cultures development borders studying (which are shown as culture elements stable combinations, connected with underground space development and geographical and ethnographical landscape) or historical processes studying inside these borders allow us to distinguish them into spelestological provinces.
It is suggested to use zoning methods of cultural geography to find out the borders of spelestological lands and provinces, as the spelestological zoning is a special case of cultural-geographical zoning describing the territorial development of such material and intellectual culture element as spelestological objects, its expressivity in the landscape, the local culture and geographical environment interconnection, the territorial organization and differentiation of a human society with stable mentality and behavior stereotypes.
All 10 spelestological lands and 83 provinces are briefly described.
A spelestological zoning scheme, based on the six-level hierarchic classification, is proposed in this paper.
The artificial underground cavities, being the subject matter of the spelestology, are known as the signs of the technological influence on the geological environment, and the underground space development technologies are described as part of the culture.
The principles of distinguishing spelestological taxon units of the two higher levels (spelestological lands and provinces) are also described. How to deal with underground objects construction is mainly determined by civilizations and local cultures mentalities. It can be seen in specific methods of underground space development and the history of mining. The spelestological lands borders are mainly determined by civilizations development areas. Either local cultures development borders studying (which are shown as culture elements stable combinations, connected with underground space development and geographical and ethnographical landscape) or historical processes studying inside these borders allow us to distinguish them into spelestological provinces.
It is suggested to use zoning methods of cultural geography to find out the borders of spelestological lands and provinces, as the spelestological zoning is a special case of cultural-geographical zoning describing the territorial development of such material and intellectual culture element as spelestological objects, its expressivity in the landscape, the local culture and geographical environment interconnection, the territorial organization and differentiation of a human society with stable mentality and behavior stereotypes.
All 10 spelestological lands and 83 provinces are briefly described.
A classification scheme for artificial underground cavities is proposed in the paper. The structure-based classification distinguishes five methods: usage of the existing cavity, mining (closed method), geotechnological (elimination) method, backfilling (open method), embedding. Artificial underground cavities can be divided also based upon the interaction with environment into caves, quasi-caves and partially reinforced structures. It is possible to divide artificial underground cavities based upon their purpose into phyla (artificial and natural), superclasses (elementary, simple and complex which include hybrid and composite types structures), classes (mine workings, architectural structures, occasional cavities, construction cavities), genera and species. The variety of underground structures in terms of their volume, shapes, tipology, orientation, lateral extent, etc., can be described by morphological models.
Within the modern administrative boundaries of Moscow, there is a significant quantity of abandoned underground mines which were the source of a relatively wide complex of natural resources: mainly limestones and subordinately sandstones, clays, and phosphorites. For that territory, the summary of the underground mines is provided, in accordance with the zoning scheme of speleology in artificial cavities (spelestology).
Gur'evskiy quarries are located in Leninsky district of the Republic of Crimea, north of Priozernoye and Ivanovka villages. The beginning of limestone extraction dates back to the middle of the XIX century. The extraction was carried out first by quarries and then by no deep underground galleries. The best stone for the Kerch fortress construction was mined here. Nowadays several fragments of underground quarries are available, up to 430 metres long. They are altered by ceiling collapses and are generally hazardous with collapses. Gur'evskiy quarries differ from other quarries in Kerch neighbourhood by large volumes. . The low rock pressure allowed leaving small columns of bedrock, which support the ceiling of galleries up to 5-6 metres high. Numerous charcoal drawings (camels, everyday scenes from the life of Cossacks and wonderfully portraits of russian Emperor Nicholas II) were found on the walls of the quarries and dated to the mining period. Inscriptions relating to the Second World War have also been persisted.
This paper reviews the available literature, archival and field data on the history of stone quarrying (mainly limestone) in the Middle Oka region between the Serpukhov, Chekhov and Ozyory towns. The Kashira spelestological district occupies the south of Moscow and the north of Tula regions and is confined mainly to the outcrops of Middle Carboniferous limestones(KashiraFormation). Stone quarrying in the Middle Oka region was apparently relatively underdeveloped and artisanal until the beginning of 20th century. The earliest archive information about stone quarrying by peasants in this area dates back to the end of the 17th century. Although pre-revolutionary sources did not specify the method of quarrying, some of the quarries were obviously underground, what is stated in archive documentation and in literatureof the late 19th – first third of the 20th centuries. The discovered pits and mines were mostly concentrated along the Oka River and along lower and middle reaches of its tributaries such as Nara, Lopasnya, Kashirka and others. However, there is evidence that small artisanal workings existed almost everywhere. We figured out that underground stone quarrying(mainly for butte and lime production), had completely finished by the early 1930s. Underground quarrieswere distributed sporadically in this area, which is primarily due to the complex geological and geomorphological structure of the Middle Oka region, the poor development of communication routes and the relatively low construction properties of the Kashira limestone.
Keywords: carbonate rocks, construction materials, non-metallic minerals, Oka River, quarries, stone quarrying, underground mining, underground quarries.
Underground structures with their inner volumes created specially to house people in normal everyday conditions and to provide them live support (housekeeping and social activities) are called living caves. They can be divided into several species: Living premises (caves, used by humans to live inside: natural caves, artificial caves, dugouts), settlements (groups of living caves and/or multifunctional living complexes, consisting of interconnected cavities), hotels (caves for temporary living of guests), ephemeral living premises (temporary structures used as shelters against environmental dangers) , shelters (constant structures used as shelters against environmental dangers), housekeeping ones (premises, used for life support issues — kitchens, toilets, saunas, etc.), canteens (places for public eating, including restaurants), marketplaces (premises for trading),estate caves (underground premises used to decorate private estates and parks and to recreate visiting hosts and guests), park caves (underground premises used to decorate social parks, other social places and to give rest to guests), playgrounds (cave volumes, dug out by children while playing), sport premises (premises housing sport halls and arenas), attractions (recreative premises), hotels (used to house guests), demonstration premises (used for installations, expositions and etc.), halls (housing meetings and social activities), waiting halls (housing people who are waiting for some events), medical caves (used to cure people).
The Baksinsky quarries are located in the eastern part of the Kerch Peninsula on the western slope of Khroni mountain, east of Glazovka village. Geologically, the quarries belong to the eastern wing of the Baksin syncline, composed of shelly limestone of the Meotian. Here, at the end of the XIX century, limestone mining was carried out both by open and underground methods. The quarries were used during the Great Patriotic War by the retreating units of the Red Army as shelters. In August 2021, the ROSI expedition carried out prospecting work to identify underground mines, they were numbered and topographically surveyed. 8 small quarries of various lengths and preservation were found. The longest of them, Baksinskaya-1, has a length of 110 m. The lengths of other mines do not exceed 10 m.
In July, 2021 the Tethys caving club surveyed an area in the upper reaches of the Pronya, along the Tula and Ryazan regions border. An underground limestone quarry fragment, found near Osanovo village, is described in this paper along with the area around it. A brief overview of underground quarrying nearby and spelestological zoning are also proposed. Early Carboniferous limestones were mainly mined in the described part of the Pronya valley. Based on historical facts, the authors consider that the quarries could not exist in the Pronya upper reaches until the late 17th – early 18th centuries. The limestone quarrying was started with large construction works of 17th century defensive structures, the Ivanovsky canal and the Tula Arms Plant in the 18th century and continued with cement plants working in the late 19th century. According to known sources, only rather small peasant quarries producing limestone for local needs, existed in the described territory until the early 20th century. The Osanovskaya-1 underground cavity is a small chamber, remained from a large limestone mine, most part of which was destroyed by open-pit quarries near Osanovo village.
Keywords: Quarries, Oka limestones, the Pronya valley upper reaches, the Osanovskaya-1 mine fragment
The Pavlovsk (Constantine) magnetic and meteorological observatory was built in 1878 in the Pavlovsk park eastern part in the town of Pavlovsk (Leningrad region). Along with other structures, the observatory had an underground pavilion for magnetic field variations observing. It was constructed of bricks and covered with a 7 meters high ground embankment, coated with turf. The pavilion consisted of two standalone rooms, separated with the main gallery. Galleries also ran around the rooms. Magnetic measurement devices were mounted on granite pillars with quarrystone basements. The observatory was fully destroyed during the World War II. Only the ruined underground pavilion has remained till nowadays.
Tethys spelestological club conducted research works in the limestone quarrying area situated in the outskirts of Kremyonki town (Kaluga region Zhukovsky district), on the river Borovna valley right slope. Tarusa limestones were mined on the river Borovna bank with rather short (not longer than 20 m) subparallel underground galleries, driven not deep from the surface. The galleries area spread for about 350 m along the Borovna. These underground quarries have nearly totally collapsed and created special relief of sinkholes and depressions. A small cave was found in one of the sinkholes. It is a cavity formed in a collapse, with its length of 2.5 m.
The artificial underground cavities toponymy (spelestonyms) is poorly studied because the objects names are mostly microtoponyms, unknown abroad the locality. Known Kerch peninsula underground quarries names were revised in this paper, their appearance was cleared. It was also checked which of the existing names are optimal for the described quarries. The authors tried to restore original names or give the quarries geographically grounded research names.
Data on the Starokarantinsky spelestological block eastern part underground quarries, situated in the city of Kerch to the east from the Ordzhonikidze street – Geroyev Stalingrada road line, are presented in the paper. Sawn facies in the whole Meotian limestones mass lie in four different layers interlaying less robust facies. The total limestones mass thickness reaches 40-55 meters. Large thickness of the sawn limestones mass allowed to develop them in several levels situated one above another. Due to such development method historical quarries entrances are situated in lines. Known underground mine workings and structures in this block part can be divided into four groups. First, these are the quarries of the Starokarantinsky mine field eastern part, several of them belonging to the Garazhnaya subgroup (Garazhnaya-1 is the largest one with its length of 485 meters) are still accessible. Some of the quarries are closed (Teletsentr, Zvyozdochka, Zyabreva, Skala, etc.). The second group includes the Kerch fortress outworks underground structures where limestones were mined while they were constructed. The third group consists of the quarries of the Totleben fort (the Ak-Burunskaya quarries). Forthly, Kerch fortress underground structures are situated in the block eastern part. However, fortress underground structures and similar ones are not described in this paper.
Khoja-Mumin mountain is situated in the south of Tajikistan, next to Kulyab (Khatlon region). Khoja-Mumin is one of the three largest salt diapirs in the world. Dissolution processes, causing various karst relief forms (sinkholes, valleys, karren, caves, outliers, etc.) creation, actively develop on the mountain. The caves have very different shapes. Vertical, horizontal and combined, sometimes multistage cavities can be found in that area. More than 50 caves have been surveyed there since the early 20 th century, some of them are briefly described in literature. In 1964 the Bolshoy Tsirk cave was discovered and surveyed there. It was the longest cave in salts in that moment. Its total length reached 1150. In the 1980s the Komsomolskaya cave with its total length of 1720 meters and amplitude of 59 meters was found. The messages of the Dnepropetrovskaya cave having the length of 2500 meters are wrong. The results of the study of the Chubechka creek valley, situated in the north-eastern salt dome part and the caves, found there, are presented in the paper. The feature of karst processes in halide rocks is their fast speed. The caves appear, change and disappear very fast in salt domes, so the cave description, made in some period of time can become out-of-date in several years.
In the south of the Moscow Region, there are still some dozens of abandoned underground quarries whose forked tunnels still attract enthusiasts and speleo-tourists. Some underground quarries extend over more than 3–5 kilometres. Nowadays, these objects are no longer registered as quarries and are often situated under villages. The article treats geological, tectonic, geomorphological, social and historical prerequisites for the development of underground quarries in the lower flow of the Pakhra River. The author analyzes archival materials and pre-revolutionary publications to reconstruct the history of the Syanovskiye Quarries , the largest underground quarries in the Moscow region. The article maintains that the exploitation of the quarries started in the early 17th century, the quarries were closed in the late 19th centuries. The article describes the present state of the quarries and contains a brief history of tourism-related development of the quarries.
Mikoyanskaya quarry group is situated near Kerch Western outskirts in Crimea republic Leninsky district, to the South of Oktyabrskoye village. It consists of two separated parts: Mikoyanskiye (Oktyabrskiye) quarries and East-Mikoyanskiye (Michurinskiye) quarries. Mikoyanskiye quarries consist of three standalone mine workings: Mikoyanskaya-1 (790 meters), Mikoyanskaya-2 (290 meters) and Mikoyanskaya-3 (9 meters). East-Mikoyanskiye quarries consist of two workings, 92 and 20 meters long. Limestone was developed there with sawing in one horizon. It is supposed that limestone was mined there mainly in 1930s for village Oktyabrskoye construction purposes.
PART 1. THE UPPER (KALUGA) SUBDISTRICT.
The Tarusa spelestological district territory is situated in the Oka river basin middle part with the lower reaches of the Oka tributaries, between Kaluga and Serpukhov. The Upper Visean Tarusa limestone, so-called “Tarusa marble”, lies near the surface in the deep valleys slopes in this area. Such limestone has been mined here since the ancient time. Less important are lignite deposits occurring in lenses among Upper Visean limestones and in layers among Lower Visean Yasnaya Polyana clays and sands. Lignite production was usually rater small. Remains of abandoned limestone quarries (either underground ones or open pits) can be found in the slopes in many places.
The overview of the underground quarries situated in the Tarusa spelestological district upper part (following the Oka river, approximately from Kaluga to Dougna, where Tarusa marbles occur near the surface) is presented in the paper according to the spelestological zoning scheme.
PART 2: THE MIDDLE (ALEKSIN) SUBDISTRICT
The Tarusa spelestological district territory is situated in the Oka river basin middle part with the lower reaches of the Oka tributaries, between Kaluga and Serpukhov. The Upper Visean Tarusa limestone, so-called “Tarusa marble”, lies near the surface in the deep valleys slopes in this area. Such limestone has been mined here since the ancient time. Less important are lignite deposits occurring in lenses among Upper Visean limestones and in layers among Lower Visean Yasnaya Polyana clays and sands. Lignite production was usually rater small. Remains of abandoned limestone quarries (either underground ones or open pits) can be found in the slopes in many places.
The overview of the underground quarries situated in the Tarusa spelestological district middle part (following the Oka river, approximately from Dougna to Lodyzhino) is presented in the paper according to the spelestological zoning scheme. In this area lignite was mined from lenses in carbonates or deposits occurring under limestones along with Tarusa marble production.
Venyov district is situated in about 150 kilometers to the south of Moscow. Lower Carboniferous limestones lay near the surface there. They fit well for construction needs. It is supposed that limestone production in the vicinity of Venyov started in the 16th century along with Tula defensive structures construction.
Large peasant quarries operated on the banks of the Osyotr river by the end of the 19th century. A quarry system situated near Byakovo village is the largest known peasant quarry in Central Russia. The Byakovo quarry system is a combination of several quarries, randomly connected to each other and forming a complex labyrinth structure. Its total length is more than 40000 meters.
The history of limestone production in Venyov district is described in the paper, based on archive and literary sources. Known underground quarry cavities are described following the modern spelestological zoning scheme (Spelestology is a term for speleology and caving in artificial underground cavities, used in Russia and several other countries). The authors also tried to restore the limestone production technological process of the 19th century, based on several remains and archive sources.
A spelestological zoning scheme, based on the six-level hierarchic classification, is proposed in this paper.
The artificial underground cavities, being the subject matter of the spelestology, are known as the signs of the technological influence on the geological environment, and the underground space development technologies are described as part of the culture.
The principles of distinguishing spelestological taxon units of the two higher levels (spelestological lands and provinces) are also described. How to deal with underground objects construction is mainly determined by civilizations and local cultures mentalities. It can be seen in specific methods of underground space development and the history of mining. The spelestological lands borders are mainly determined by civilizations development areas. Either local cultures development borders studying (which are shown as culture elements stable combinations, connected with underground space development and geographical and ethnographical landscape) or historical processes studying inside these borders allow us to distinguish them into spelestological provinces.
It is suggested to use zoning methods of cultural geography to find out the borders of spelestological lands and provinces, as the spelestological zoning is a special case of cultural-geographical zoning describing the territorial development of such material and intellectual culture element as spelestological objects, its expressivity in the landscape, the local culture and geographical environment interconnection, the territorial organization and differentiation of a human society with stable mentality and behavior stereotypes.
All 10 spelestological lands and 83 provinces are briefly described.
A spelestological zoning scheme, based on the six-level hierarchic classification, is proposed in this paper.
The artificial underground cavities, being the subject matter of the spelestology, are known as the signs of the technological influence on the geological environment, and the underground space development technologies are described as part of the culture.
The principles of distinguishing spelestological taxon units of the two higher levels (spelestological lands and provinces) are also described. How to deal with underground objects construction is mainly determined by civilizations and local cultures mentalities. It can be seen in specific methods of underground space development and the history of mining. The spelestological lands borders are mainly determined by civilizations development areas. Either local cultures development borders studying (which are shown as culture elements stable combinations, connected with underground space development and geographical and ethnographical landscape) or historical processes studying inside these borders allow us to distinguish them into spelestological provinces.
It is suggested to use zoning methods of cultural geography to find out the borders of spelestological lands and provinces, as the spelestological zoning is a special case of cultural-geographical zoning describing the territorial development of such material and intellectual culture element as spelestological objects, its expressivity in the landscape, the local culture and geographical environment interconnection, the territorial organization and differentiation of a human society with stable mentality and behavior stereotypes.
All 10 spelestological lands and 83 provinces are briefly described.
A classification scheme for artificial underground cavities is proposed in the paper. The structure-based classification distinguishes five methods: usage of the existing cavity, mining (closed method), geotechnological (elimination) method, backfilling (open method), embedding. Artificial underground cavities can be divided also based upon the interaction with environment into caves, quasi-caves and partially reinforced structures. It is possible to divide artificial underground cavities based upon their purpose into phyla (artificial and natural), superclasses (elementary, simple and complex which include hybrid and composite types structures), classes (mine workings, architectural structures, occasional cavities, construction cavities), genera and species. The variety of underground structures in terms of their volume, shapes, tipology, orientation, lateral extent, etc., can be described by morphological models.
Within the modern administrative boundaries of Moscow, there is a significant quantity of abandoned underground mines which were the source of a relatively wide complex of natural resources: mainly limestones and subordinately sandstones, clays, and phosphorites. For that territory, the summary of the underground mines is provided, in accordance with the zoning scheme of speleology in artificial cavities (spelestology).
Gur'evskiy quarries are located in Leninsky district of the Republic of Crimea, north of Priozernoye and Ivanovka villages. The beginning of limestone extraction dates back to the middle of the XIX century. The extraction was carried out first by quarries and then by no deep underground galleries. The best stone for the Kerch fortress construction was mined here. Nowadays several fragments of underground quarries are available, up to 430 metres long. They are altered by ceiling collapses and are generally hazardous with collapses. Gur'evskiy quarries differ from other quarries in Kerch neighbourhood by large volumes. . The low rock pressure allowed leaving small columns of bedrock, which support the ceiling of galleries up to 5-6 metres high. Numerous charcoal drawings (camels, everyday scenes from the life of Cossacks and wonderfully portraits of russian Emperor Nicholas II) were found on the walls of the quarries and dated to the mining period. Inscriptions relating to the Second World War have also been persisted.
This paper reviews the available literature, archival and field data on the history of stone quarrying (mainly limestone) in the Middle Oka region between the Serpukhov, Chekhov and Ozyory towns. The Kashira spelestological district occupies the south of Moscow and the north of Tula regions and is confined mainly to the outcrops of Middle Carboniferous limestones(KashiraFormation). Stone quarrying in the Middle Oka region was apparently relatively underdeveloped and artisanal until the beginning of 20th century. The earliest archive information about stone quarrying by peasants in this area dates back to the end of the 17th century. Although pre-revolutionary sources did not specify the method of quarrying, some of the quarries were obviously underground, what is stated in archive documentation and in literatureof the late 19th – first third of the 20th centuries. The discovered pits and mines were mostly concentrated along the Oka River and along lower and middle reaches of its tributaries such as Nara, Lopasnya, Kashirka and others. However, there is evidence that small artisanal workings existed almost everywhere. We figured out that underground stone quarrying(mainly for butte and lime production), had completely finished by the early 1930s. Underground quarrieswere distributed sporadically in this area, which is primarily due to the complex geological and geomorphological structure of the Middle Oka region, the poor development of communication routes and the relatively low construction properties of the Kashira limestone.
Keywords: carbonate rocks, construction materials, non-metallic minerals, Oka River, quarries, stone quarrying, underground mining, underground quarries.
Underground structures with their inner volumes created specially to house people in normal everyday conditions and to provide them live support (housekeeping and social activities) are called living caves. They can be divided into several species: Living premises (caves, used by humans to live inside: natural caves, artificial caves, dugouts), settlements (groups of living caves and/or multifunctional living complexes, consisting of interconnected cavities), hotels (caves for temporary living of guests), ephemeral living premises (temporary structures used as shelters against environmental dangers) , shelters (constant structures used as shelters against environmental dangers), housekeeping ones (premises, used for life support issues — kitchens, toilets, saunas, etc.), canteens (places for public eating, including restaurants), marketplaces (premises for trading),estate caves (underground premises used to decorate private estates and parks and to recreate visiting hosts and guests), park caves (underground premises used to decorate social parks, other social places and to give rest to guests), playgrounds (cave volumes, dug out by children while playing), sport premises (premises housing sport halls and arenas), attractions (recreative premises), hotels (used to house guests), demonstration premises (used for installations, expositions and etc.), halls (housing meetings and social activities), waiting halls (housing people who are waiting for some events), medical caves (used to cure people).
The Baksinsky quarries are located in the eastern part of the Kerch Peninsula on the western slope of Khroni mountain, east of Glazovka village. Geologically, the quarries belong to the eastern wing of the Baksin syncline, composed of shelly limestone of the Meotian. Here, at the end of the XIX century, limestone mining was carried out both by open and underground methods. The quarries were used during the Great Patriotic War by the retreating units of the Red Army as shelters. In August 2021, the ROSI expedition carried out prospecting work to identify underground mines, they were numbered and topographically surveyed. 8 small quarries of various lengths and preservation were found. The longest of them, Baksinskaya-1, has a length of 110 m. The lengths of other mines do not exceed 10 m.
In July, 2021 the Tethys caving club surveyed an area in the upper reaches of the Pronya, along the Tula and Ryazan regions border. An underground limestone quarry fragment, found near Osanovo village, is described in this paper along with the area around it. A brief overview of underground quarrying nearby and spelestological zoning are also proposed. Early Carboniferous limestones were mainly mined in the described part of the Pronya valley. Based on historical facts, the authors consider that the quarries could not exist in the Pronya upper reaches until the late 17th – early 18th centuries. The limestone quarrying was started with large construction works of 17th century defensive structures, the Ivanovsky canal and the Tula Arms Plant in the 18th century and continued with cement plants working in the late 19th century. According to known sources, only rather small peasant quarries producing limestone for local needs, existed in the described territory until the early 20th century. The Osanovskaya-1 underground cavity is a small chamber, remained from a large limestone mine, most part of which was destroyed by open-pit quarries near Osanovo village.
Keywords: Quarries, Oka limestones, the Pronya valley upper reaches, the Osanovskaya-1 mine fragment
The Pavlovsk (Constantine) magnetic and meteorological observatory was built in 1878 in the Pavlovsk park eastern part in the town of Pavlovsk (Leningrad region). Along with other structures, the observatory had an underground pavilion for magnetic field variations observing. It was constructed of bricks and covered with a 7 meters high ground embankment, coated with turf. The pavilion consisted of two standalone rooms, separated with the main gallery. Galleries also ran around the rooms. Magnetic measurement devices were mounted on granite pillars with quarrystone basements. The observatory was fully destroyed during the World War II. Only the ruined underground pavilion has remained till nowadays.
Tethys spelestological club conducted research works in the limestone quarrying area situated in the outskirts of Kremyonki town (Kaluga region Zhukovsky district), on the river Borovna valley right slope. Tarusa limestones were mined on the river Borovna bank with rather short (not longer than 20 m) subparallel underground galleries, driven not deep from the surface. The galleries area spread for about 350 m along the Borovna. These underground quarries have nearly totally collapsed and created special relief of sinkholes and depressions. A small cave was found in one of the sinkholes. It is a cavity formed in a collapse, with its length of 2.5 m.
The artificial underground cavities toponymy (spelestonyms) is poorly studied because the objects names are mostly microtoponyms, unknown abroad the locality. Known Kerch peninsula underground quarries names were revised in this paper, their appearance was cleared. It was also checked which of the existing names are optimal for the described quarries. The authors tried to restore original names or give the quarries geographically grounded research names.
Data on the Starokarantinsky spelestological block eastern part underground quarries, situated in the city of Kerch to the east from the Ordzhonikidze street – Geroyev Stalingrada road line, are presented in the paper. Sawn facies in the whole Meotian limestones mass lie in four different layers interlaying less robust facies. The total limestones mass thickness reaches 40-55 meters. Large thickness of the sawn limestones mass allowed to develop them in several levels situated one above another. Due to such development method historical quarries entrances are situated in lines. Known underground mine workings and structures in this block part can be divided into four groups. First, these are the quarries of the Starokarantinsky mine field eastern part, several of them belonging to the Garazhnaya subgroup (Garazhnaya-1 is the largest one with its length of 485 meters) are still accessible. Some of the quarries are closed (Teletsentr, Zvyozdochka, Zyabreva, Skala, etc.). The second group includes the Kerch fortress outworks underground structures where limestones were mined while they were constructed. The third group consists of the quarries of the Totleben fort (the Ak-Burunskaya quarries). Forthly, Kerch fortress underground structures are situated in the block eastern part. However, fortress underground structures and similar ones are not described in this paper.
Khoja-Mumin mountain is situated in the south of Tajikistan, next to Kulyab (Khatlon region). Khoja-Mumin is one of the three largest salt diapirs in the world. Dissolution processes, causing various karst relief forms (sinkholes, valleys, karren, caves, outliers, etc.) creation, actively develop on the mountain. The caves have very different shapes. Vertical, horizontal and combined, sometimes multistage cavities can be found in that area. More than 50 caves have been surveyed there since the early 20 th century, some of them are briefly described in literature. In 1964 the Bolshoy Tsirk cave was discovered and surveyed there. It was the longest cave in salts in that moment. Its total length reached 1150. In the 1980s the Komsomolskaya cave with its total length of 1720 meters and amplitude of 59 meters was found. The messages of the Dnepropetrovskaya cave having the length of 2500 meters are wrong. The results of the study of the Chubechka creek valley, situated in the north-eastern salt dome part and the caves, found there, are presented in the paper. The feature of karst processes in halide rocks is their fast speed. The caves appear, change and disappear very fast in salt domes, so the cave description, made in some period of time can become out-of-date in several years.
In the south of the Moscow Region, there are still some dozens of abandoned underground quarries whose forked tunnels still attract enthusiasts and speleo-tourists. Some underground quarries extend over more than 3–5 kilometres. Nowadays, these objects are no longer registered as quarries and are often situated under villages. The article treats geological, tectonic, geomorphological, social and historical prerequisites for the development of underground quarries in the lower flow of the Pakhra River. The author analyzes archival materials and pre-revolutionary publications to reconstruct the history of the Syanovskiye Quarries , the largest underground quarries in the Moscow region. The article maintains that the exploitation of the quarries started in the early 17th century, the quarries were closed in the late 19th centuries. The article describes the present state of the quarries and contains a brief history of tourism-related development of the quarries.
Mikoyanskaya quarry group is situated near Kerch Western outskirts in Crimea republic Leninsky district, to the South of Oktyabrskoye village. It consists of two separated parts: Mikoyanskiye (Oktyabrskiye) quarries and East-Mikoyanskiye (Michurinskiye) quarries. Mikoyanskiye quarries consist of three standalone mine workings: Mikoyanskaya-1 (790 meters), Mikoyanskaya-2 (290 meters) and Mikoyanskaya-3 (9 meters). East-Mikoyanskiye quarries consist of two workings, 92 and 20 meters long. Limestone was developed there with sawing in one horizon. It is supposed that limestone was mined there mainly in 1930s for village Oktyabrskoye construction purposes.
PART 1. THE UPPER (KALUGA) SUBDISTRICT.
The Tarusa spelestological district territory is situated in the Oka river basin middle part with the lower reaches of the Oka tributaries, between Kaluga and Serpukhov. The Upper Visean Tarusa limestone, so-called “Tarusa marble”, lies near the surface in the deep valleys slopes in this area. Such limestone has been mined here since the ancient time. Less important are lignite deposits occurring in lenses among Upper Visean limestones and in layers among Lower Visean Yasnaya Polyana clays and sands. Lignite production was usually rater small. Remains of abandoned limestone quarries (either underground ones or open pits) can be found in the slopes in many places.
The overview of the underground quarries situated in the Tarusa spelestological district upper part (following the Oka river, approximately from Kaluga to Dougna, where Tarusa marbles occur near the surface) is presented in the paper according to the spelestological zoning scheme.
PART 2: THE MIDDLE (ALEKSIN) SUBDISTRICT
The Tarusa spelestological district territory is situated in the Oka river basin middle part with the lower reaches of the Oka tributaries, between Kaluga and Serpukhov. The Upper Visean Tarusa limestone, so-called “Tarusa marble”, lies near the surface in the deep valleys slopes in this area. Such limestone has been mined here since the ancient time. Less important are lignite deposits occurring in lenses among Upper Visean limestones and in layers among Lower Visean Yasnaya Polyana clays and sands. Lignite production was usually rater small. Remains of abandoned limestone quarries (either underground ones or open pits) can be found in the slopes in many places.
The overview of the underground quarries situated in the Tarusa spelestological district middle part (following the Oka river, approximately from Dougna to Lodyzhino) is presented in the paper according to the spelestological zoning scheme. In this area lignite was mined from lenses in carbonates or deposits occurring under limestones along with Tarusa marble production.