SPECIALLY PROTECTED NATURAL AND TECHNOGENIC TERRITORIES OF THE KIROV REGION

The article presents comprehensive data on one of the nature monuments of the Kirov region under the name “Zhukovlyansky sandstone spherical concretions”. The status of a specially protected natural area of local importance was granted to it in 2017 due to the presence of clusters of spherical geological bodies of human size, which give the area a very scenic view. They were discovered during the quarrying of gravel and sand materials in the early 80-s of the last century and soon became a reason to put forward various hypotheses regarding the time and methods of their formation. The latter was the motivation for this publication, which is based on field and laboratory geological and soil-geochemical studies carried out by the authors in 2014-18. The results below give an idea of the peculiarities of the spatial structure, component composition and properties of local geosystems, the time of formation of their lithogenic basis, scientific and cognitive, tourist-recreational importance and problems of preservation of the original natural heritage of the region under consideration. From the genetic point of view, the spherical sandstone concretions located within the paleolacial province of the Vyatka Territory are treated by the authors as native Permian formations, not affected or slightly affected by fluvioglacial processes at the Pleistocene stage of geological development. They serve as a basis for the designation of a special category of protected areas on Vyatka land - natural and man-made monuments - as an example of spontaneous creation of nature and man.