The moveable geological heritage of the National University of Tucumán, Argentina.

ACEÑOLAZA, G.; ARÁOZ, L.; BELLOS, L.I.

virtual

Simposio; X International ProGEO; 2021

Instituto Geológico y Minero de España

Even though the Geological Heritage is the undervalued element of any conservation policy, it is the basic component of Natural Heritage when carrying out any analysis of a territorial nature. In this sense, the conservation of geological heritage requires not only a correct identification, classification and adequate valuation, but also an efficient management and conservation towards its subsistence. In this framework, movable heritage is an outstanding part of geology, being made up of collections that include notorious rock samples, fossils of different nature and microscopic preparations that are generally housed in museums or specialized sites, protected and maintained mostly for use in research or educational purposes.In Argentina, the ownership of the Geological Heritage, its management and protection is enforced by the State through laws and regulations (National Law Nr 25743/03), which designs and regulates the legal handling of heritage pieces. Regardless of the numerous observations that can be done over the law -due to inconsistencies and somehow its inapplicability-, it represents the path to follow from a regulatory point of view.Movable geological heritage must recover, classify, value and preserve objects of a unique type, contributing to the knowledge of nature, promoting its responsible protection in pursuit of the generation of social awareness and scientific knowledge, as an essential resource for the development of a nation.This work refers particularly to the movable geological heritage included in the geological and paleontological collections deposited at the Universidad Nacional de Tucumán (UNT, Argentina), which are represented by paleontological material of vertebrates and invertebrates (macro and microscopic), rock samples (hand and thin sections), as well as paleobotanical preparations housed in various dependencies belonging or linked to the UNT (Facultad de Ciencias Naturales e IML, Instituto Superior de Correlación Geológica and Fundación Miguel Lillo).