Identification and enhancement of geological, geomorphological and geographic elements for a Geopark proposal in the Quebrada de Humahuaca (northwest of Argentina)

MEDINA WALTER

Londres

Congreso; OXFORD GEOHERITAGE VIRTUAL CONFERENCE; 2020

OXFORD

The Quebrada de Humahuaca has a long geological history. Its wide variety of rocks and geoforms is the result of a plurality of geological processes, which took place at different periods in its evolutionary history, and can be evidenced in the selected Geological Interest Sites (GIS). The sites are as follows: The Ondulitas (550 Mya.) Discordance Tilcárica (550 Mya.) The Fossils of Salto Alto (500 Mya.) The Dinosaur Footprints, Paseo de los Colorados, the Casata (65 Mya.), the Garganta del Diablo, the Espejo de Falla, the Cabalgamiento, the Paleta del Pintor, Cerro de Siete Colores (50 Mya.), the Cone de Volcán, (2.5 Mya.) the Badlands, and Meteorite Impact (Recently). The SIG?s faithfully represent the geological characteristics of the Quebrada and achieve an important representativeness of the processes that occurred in it throughout its geological history, allowing to identify the presence in the area of geodiversity elements that illustrate a remarkable geological variety. GISs are heterogeneous in time and in geological processes involved. Regarding its frequency, there is no repetition between the sites. Thus, each GIS is the result of unique phenomena, it reveals a different development either in geological time, lithological origin or in the processes that originated them. The geoheritage of the area has a high singularity and the integration in the environmental interpretation of the landscape of the geological and geomorphological characteristics will be doubly perceived, under the structure of a Geopark, which also guides actions towards consistency with the service to visitors. The cultural history of the Quebrada de Humahuaca, in which justifies its two UNESCO declarations, as a World Cultural Heritage Site in 2003, and as a section of the Qhapaq Ñan Cultural Itinerary, in 2014, it is proposed to add these fourteen GIS for the reconstruction of its geological history, giving account of the commitment to the enhancement of the geological processes and the landscape of Quebrada, product of these geological processes and the presence of man some 10,000 years ago. Given everything said so far, added to the connectivity of the area with respect to the GIS and the socio-economic structure based on cultural tourism, a geopark in the Quebrada would contribute to the conservation of the memory of the Earth.