Geosites and Geotouristic Attractions Proposed for the Project Geopark Colca and Volcanoes of Andagua, Peru

Abstract

The Colca Canyon (Central Andes, Southern Peru), about 100 km long and 1-3 km deep, forms a magnificent cross section of the Earth's crust giving insight into mutual relations between lithostratigraphical units, and allowing relatively easy interpretation of the fascinating geological history written in the rocky beds and relief. Current activity of tectonic processes related to the subduction of the Nazca plate beneath the South American Plate exposed the geological heritage within study area. Welldeveloped tectonic structures present high scientific values. The volcanic landforms in the Valley of the Volcanoes and around the Colca Canyon include lava flows, scoria cones and small lava domes. They represent natural phenomena which gained recognition among tourists, scientists and local people. Studies performed by the Polish Scientific Expedition to Peru since 2003 recognized in area of Colca Canyon and Valley of the Volcanoes high geodiversity, potential for geoturism but also requirements for protectection. The idea of creating geopark gained recently the approval of regional and local authorities with support from the local National Geological Survey (INGEMMET). The Geopark Colca and Volcanoes of Andagua would strengthen the relatively poor system of the protected areas in the Arequipa department, increasing the touristic attractiveness and determine constraints for sustained regional development.

The Mt. Catria – Mt. Nerone Ridge in the North-Marchean Apennines (Central Italy): A Potential Geopark? Definition and Strengths of a Great Geological, Natural, and Cultural Heritage

“…These earth heritage sites are part of an integrated concept of protection, education, and sustainable development. A Geopark therefore achieves its objectives through a three-pronged approach: conservation, education and geotourism [9][10][11][12].…”

Worldwide Research on Geoparks through Bibliometric Analysis

“…The type of geo-heritage linked to volcanic and geothermal environments, as well as examples of geo-tourism practices, were studied and evaluated by Erfurt-Cooper [143]. In recent years, the recognition of volcanic geo-heritage has given rise to many geo-heritage, geo-conservation, and geo-tourism studies [144][145][146][147][148]. Volcanoes are of particular interest and attract many tourists each year [149].…”

“…It presents a series of investigations carried out in Peru by Polish scientists. This enabled a proposal for a Geopark in the region that contains one of the deepest canyons in the world, located in the Colca region, known as the 'Valley of the Andagua Volcanoes' [29,217], a place full of geodiversity and that hosts a variety of lava domes and scoria cones [218].…”

“…Although Geoparks are concentrated in Europe and Asia, in recent years the initiative has been spreading in Latin America, taking advantage of its ethnic, cultural, geographical, climatic, and above all geological diversity [26]. Latin America already has eight sites of recognized geological heritage: Araripe (Brazil, 2006) [27], Grutas del Palacio (Uruguay, 2013), Comarca Minera and Mixteca Alta (México, 2017) [28], Colca y Volcanes de Andagua (Perú, 2019) [29], Kütralkura (Chile, 2019) [30], Imbabura (Ecuador, 2019), and Rio Coco (Nicaragua, 2020). The emerging potential of initiatives in Latin America has led to the development of new geopark projects in the region (e.g., [31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39]).…”

Late Palaeozoic Volcanism in Central Europe—Geoheritage Significance and Use in Geotourism

“…In addition, extinct but geologically recent volcanism, dated back to the Neogene-Quaternary timespan and represented by abundant rock record and diverse volcanic landforms, is also or may become a foundation for successful promotion of geoheritage through tourism and education. Numerous examples can be found in Europe (Cayla 2014;Rapprich et al 2017;Szepesi et al 2017) and North America (Erfurt-Cooper 2011), as well as in East Asia (Gao et al 2013;Woo et al 2013;Aquino et al 2017), Australia (Joyce 2010), Africa (Megerssa et al 2019;Tefogoum et al 2019) and South America (Gałaś et al 2018). The importance of volcanic phenomena in the global geoconservation context is exemplified by their prominent presence on the World Heritage List of UNESCO (Wood 2009;Casadevall et al 2019), within the Global Geoparks Network (Liu et al 2012;Brilha 2018) and among national inventories of sites of special geoscience interest (e.g.…”