Natural features and geological history of mount Vottovaara (Russian Stonehenge)

   The article deals with the issues of physical and geographical features of the territory of Mount Vottovaara (which is the highest point of the West Karelian Upland) and its geological history. It is compared with one of the most famous attractions in the UK – Stonehenge Jam. Hypotheses of the origin and formation of this area are presented. The mountain keeps a large number of secrets, the main and most interesting among which are up to 1,600 individual stones located on its top – components of an ancient cult complex. They can be fully considered seids, many of which resemble unusual stone buildings, and according to a number of researchers who played a cult role and belonged to the culture of the ancient Sami. One of the hypotheses of the origin of the Votovaara seids connects them with the manifestation of glacial exaration processes during the periods of ancient glaciations. Another explains the presence of numerous traces of paleoseismic dislocations by a strong catastrophic palaeo-earthquake that occurred at the end of the Preboreal – the beginning of the Boreal period due to the degradation of the Late Valdai (Ostashkovsky) glaciation and the тrapid removal of glacial load. There is also a hypothesis, partly related to the ancient mythology of a Worldwide Flood, or a catastrophic flood of universal scale. According to one version, it could have happened due to the fall of a large meteorite in the area of the Philippine Sea. The tangential impact of the meteorite led to a shift of the solid earth’s crust along the surface of the liquid mantle, and the shock wave passing through the earth’s crust (compression wave) formed a ridge on the territory of modern Karelia, which includes Vottovaara. Finally, there is a version of the formation of the massif as a result of a powerful volcanic eruption that occurred several million years ago.

1. Bogatyreva, E. Misticheskaja gora Vottovaara / E. Bogatyreva // Parnas. Literaturnyj portal. – Rezhim dostupa: http://parnasse.ru/prose/essay/mystic/misticheskaja-gora-votovara.html (data obrashcheniia: 18. 11. 2022).

2. Vottovaara // Sajt informacionno-analiticheskoj sistemy «Osobo ohranjaemye prirodnye territorii Rossii». – Rezhim dostupa: http://www.oopt.aari.ru/oopt/Воттоваара (data obrashcheniia: 18. 11. 2022).

3. Gora Vottovaara 417 metrov. – Rezhim dostupa: https://yandex.ru/profile/78234051275 (data obrashcheniia: 18. 11. 2022).

4. Gora Vottovaara na sajte Nikolaja Smyslova. – Rezhim dostupa: http://nsmyslov.narod.ru/KARELIA/vottovaara.html (data obrashcheniia: 18. 11. 2022).

5. Kert, G.M. Saamskaja toponimnaja leksika / Kert G.M. – Petrozavodsk, 2009. – 178 s.

6. Nikonov, A.A. O novejshih razryvah i paleosejsmodislokacijah v Onezhskoj paleoproterozojskoj strukture Fennoskandinavskogo shhita / A.A. Nikonov, A.V. Poleshhuk, D.S. Zykov // Trudy KarNC RAN, 2017. – № 11. – S. 3-18.

7. Nikonov, A.A. Aktivnye razlomy: opredelenie i problemy vy-delenija / A.A. Nikonov // Geojekologija. Inzhenernaja geologija. Gidrogeologija. Geokriologija, 1995. – № 4. – S. 16-27.

8. Opisanie gory Vottovaara. Kak dobrat’sja. Karta. – Rezhim dostupa: http://getpath.ru/articles/vottovaara/ (data obrashcheniia: 18. 11. 2022).

9. Pazinich, V. Javlenie gory Vottovaara i ego mesto v sisteme real’noj gljaciologii / V. Pazinich. – Rezhim dostupa: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/327107527_Avlenie_gory_Vottovaara_i_ego_mesto_v_sisteme_realnoj_glaciologii?channel=doi&linkId=5b795f104585151fd12074a2&showFulltext=true. doi:10.13140/rg.2.2.35912.98568 (data obrashcheniia: 18. 11. 2022).

10. Prirodnyj kompleks gory Vottovaara: osobennosti, sovremennoe sostojanie, sohranenie. Monografija / Pod red. A. N. Gromceva. – Petrozavodsk: KarNC RAN, 2009. – 158 s.

11. Saamskoe svjatilishhe na gore Vottovara. – Rezhim dostupa: https://worldshaman.ru/poezdki/shamanskimi-tropami-saamov-na-vottovaaru (data obrashcheniia: 18. 11. 2022).

12. Saamsko-russkij slovar’ : 8000 slov / Pod red. R.D. Kuruch. – Moskva : Rus. jaz., 1985. – 567 s.

13. Simonjan, S.M. Mify i real’nost’ gory Votto-Vaara / S.M. Simonjan. – Rezhim dostupa: https://lah.ru/mify-i-realnost-gory-votto-vaara/?ysclid=lk5r35rc9r529357101 (data obrashcheniia: 18. 11. 2022).

14. Simchenko, Ju.B. Kul’tura ohotnikov na olenej Severnoj Evrazii / Ju.B. Simchenko. – Moskva: Nauka, 1975. – 309 s.

15. Skljarov, A. Mif o potope: raschety i real’nost’ / A. Skljarov. – Rezhim dostupa: http://lit.md/files/sklyarov/mif_o_Potope-raschyoty_i_realnost.pdf (data obrashcheniia: 18. 11. 2022).

16. Teslenok, S.A. Ispol’zovanie novyh informacionnyh tehnologij pri razrabotke turistskih marshrutov / S.A. Teslenok, K.S. Teslenok // Turizm Kazahstana: problemy i perspektivy : mat-ly V Mezh-dunarod. nauch.-prakt. konf. 9-11 okt., 2014 g., g. Almaty, Kazahstan. – Almaty, 2014. – S. 103-109.

17. Charnoluskij, V.V. V kraju letuchego kamnja : Zapiski jetnografa / V.V. Charnoluskij. – Moskva: Mysl’, 1972. – 271 s.

18. Shahnovich, M.M. Kompleksy drevnih saam na territorii Severnoj Karelii / M.M. Shahnovich, I.S. Manjuhin // Pamjatniki drevnih kul’tur lesnoj polosy Evrazii. – Petrozavodsk, 1993. – S. 82-86.

19. Shahnovich, M.M. Kul’tovyj kompleks na gore Vottovaara (itogi rabot v 1993 godu) / M.M. Shahnovich // Vestnik Karel’skogo kraevedcheskogo muzeja. – Vyp. 2. – Petrozavodsk, 1994. – S. 26-35.

20. Shvarev, S.V. Vottovaara – Zapadno-Onezhskij lineament: priznaki i parametry sejsmicheskoj aktivnosti v golocene / S.V. Shvarev, A.A. Nikonov, M.V. Rodkin // Fundamental’nye problemy tektoniki i geodinamiki. – T. II. – Moskva: GEOS, 2020. – S. 415-419.

21. Shvarev, S.V. Strukturnaja pozicija i parametry paleo-zemletrjasenij v rajone gory Vottovaara (Srednjaja Karelija, vostochnaja chast’ Fennoskandinavskogo shhita) / S.V. Shvarev, M.V. Rodkin // Voprosy inzhenernoj sejsmologii, 2017. – T. 44. – № 2. – S. 35-60.