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39th EGN Coordination
Committee Meeting
Burren and Cliffs
of Moher
(Ireland), 23rd - 25th March 2017 |
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PHOTO
CHRONICLE |
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Thursday 23.03.2017
The 39th European Geoparks Network Meeting is hosted by the Burren and
Cliffs of Moher UNESCO Global Geopark at the Falls Hotel in Ennistymon
(County Clare).
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Thursday 23.03.2017
The representatives of the European UNESCO Global Geoparks are ready for
the 39th European Geoparks Network Coordination Committee In the third
row from the bottom most of the Italian delegates, from the left to the
right: Luigi Bloise and Egidio Calabrese (Pollino UGG), Alessia Amorfini
and Giuseppe Ottria (Apuan Alps UGG), Violet Masè (Adamello Brenta UGG),
Marco Firpo and Maurizio Burlando (Beigua UGG) and Aniello Aloia (Cilento
and Vallo di Diano UGG).
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Thursday 23.03.2017
The chairman's table (from the left): Patrick Mc Keever (UNESCO Head of
the Earth Sciences and Risk reduction), Nikolas Zouros (EGN and GGN
Coordinator), Kristin Rangnes (EGN Vice Coordinator) and Carol Gleeson (Burren
and Cliffs of Moher UGG Manager).
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Thursday 23.03.2017
Here is the most awaited moment for the Italian representatives and
particularly for the Apuan Alps Geopark. Alessia Amorfini from the Apuan
Alps UNESCO Global Geopark is submitting to the Coordination Committee
her application as new member of the EGN Advisory Committee. Her program
has been fully convincing and her candidacy has obtained the unanimous
vote.
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Thursday 23.03.2017
Along with Alessia, Artur Sa and Sophie Justice have also joined the
Advisory Committee as voted members. For Artur from the Arouca Geopark
(Portugal) this is a confirmation that attests the good work done in the
past years.
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Thursday 23.03.2017
Sophie Justice from the Chablais UNESCO Global Geopark (France) while
presenting her possible contribution into the activities of the EGN
Advisory Committee.
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Thursday 23.03.2017
In the afternoon meeting of the Geohazard Working Group. This is a new
working group born from the need to address one of the most important
issues within the UNESCO. It is no coincidence that the attending
delegates are from geoparks from tectonically active areas such as
Iceland (Katla Geopark), Greece (Lesvos and Psiloritis geoparks) and
Italy (Apuan Alps, Beigua and Pollino geoparks
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Thursday 23.03.2017
Again in the afternoon, the agenda includes time for separate meetings
of the EGN National Committees. The Italian delegates are sharing and
coordinating the activities at the national level mostly for the next
main appointment: the 8th International Conference on UNESCO
Global Geoparks to be held in the Adamello Brenta UGG in September 2018.
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Friday 24.03.2017
Today is a sunny day. The landscape from the accommodation hosting the
EGN Meeting includes the falls that give the name to the Falls Hotel.
Actually, they are not naturals falls; they were formed by deviating the
river across an abandoned quarry. In the background, on the hill top,
the old Church
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Friday 24.03.2017
The work of the meeting starts with an open session regarding
sustainable tourism. Short presentations show examples of sustainable
tourism in Irish and European Geoparks. Here, Aniello Aloia, Coordinator
of the Italian National Geopark Committee, is speaking about the
European Charter of Sustainable Tourism.
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Friday 24.03.2017
The open session continues in the foyer of the Falls Hotel where the
public can mingle and meet the attending Geoparks that display (pull up
and leaflets) their work in sustainable tourism. In the photo the
representatives from the Azores UGG in front of their pull up
advertising the next 14th European Geoparks Conference
(September 2017) that will be hosted in their Geopark.
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Friday 24.03.2017
Hereinafter, the hall gets crowded. In the foreground Violet Masè and
Joseph Masè from the Adamello Brenta UGG.
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Friday 24.03.2017
You know these smiling personalities! Nickolas Zouros (EGN and GGN
Coordinator) asked Alessia Amorfini (Apuan Alps UGG) to have a picture
together as new member of the EGN Advisory Committee.
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Friday 24.03.2017
In the afternoon, Joseph Masè, president of Adamello Brenta UNESCO
Global Geopark, presents the organization of the 8th
International Conference on UNESCO Global Geoparks that will be hosted
by his geopark in September 2018.
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Saturday 25.03.2017
Today is the field trip day. At the start, Eamon Doyle, Geopark
Geologist of the Burren and Cliffs of Moher UGG, explains the geology we
will observe by showing us the map “Geology of Ireland” by the
Geological Survey of Ireland.
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Saturday 25.03.2017
We arrive at the Cliffs of Moher Visitor Experience, the most visited
natural attraction in Ireland. It shows a low visual impact being built
inside the hills. The weather is extraordinarily nice.
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Saturday 25.03.2017
Divided into groups of few people, the guided tour of the Cliffs of
Moher begins. The guide explains the geological features of the Cliffs
and illustrates the rules of behavior and security.
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Saturday 25.03.2017
The explanations by the guide are summarized in this and other panels
along the path to the Cliffs of Moher. Note that the panels are written
in English and Gaelic languages.
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Saturday 25.03.2017
The Cliffs of Moher stand more than 200 meters above the sea level of
the Atlantic Ocean. The rocks that form the cliffs are layers of
sandstones, siltstones and mudstones that on the whole represent
sediments belonging to a river delta formed about 320 million years ago
during the Carboniferous period. The Cliffs of Moher formed as a result
of coastal erosion by the Atlantic’s waves and wind.
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Saturday 25.03.2017
The good weather and the lack of wind allow a short cruise from the
marina of Doolin village. At the start, the sub-horizontal
stratification of limestones is clearly visible, testifying to the
almost total absence of deformation. The limestones are the oldest rocks
outcropping in the Burren region. They formed in a warm, shallow,
tropical sea during the Carboniferous period, about 345 million years
ago.
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Saturday 25.03.2017
From the boat the Cliffs of Moher are against the light. It is not
possible to distinguish the geological details but they give very
suggestive pictures anyway!
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Saturday 25.03.2017
At the Lisdoonvarna Pavilion, meeting with representatives of Community
and Schools. Students from the Lisdoonvarna secondary school present
their project about the local river. All the European UNESCO Global
Geoparks delegates have recognized the high quality of this
multidisciplinary project, the result of collaboration between School,
Galway University and Burren and Cliffs of Moher UGG, which has dealt
with knowledge and protection of this community’s heritage.
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Saturday 25.03.2017
Lisdoonvarna’s primary schools have done a research on the European
UNESCO Global Geoparks. Pupils have then chosen a geopark for each
country for a more detailed study. For Italy, the Pollino UGG was
chosen. The smiling Egidio Calabrese (left) and Luigi Bloise (right) are
proud in front of the poster of their geopark.
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Saturday 25.03.2017
Outside the Lisdoonvarna Pavilion, a striated boulder is an example of a
glacial erratic, a reminder of how the Burren region was formed by
melting glaciers at the end of the Ice Age 12,000 years ago. Erratics
are rocks that have been transported from their original location by
moving glaciers that eroded soil and bedrock.
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Saturday 25.03.2017
Scenic drive along the portion of the Wild Atlantic Way voted one of the
top 10 scenic drives in Europe. We can appreciate the peculiarity of the
Burren region: the karst landscape. The word Burren comes from the Irish
word “boireann” which means “a stony place”. It is one of the largest
karst region in the world. Here the limestone pavement “dives” into the
sea by the side of a small lighthouse.
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Saturday 25.03.2017
A short stop to look closely the limestone pavement along the Atlantic
coast. A limestone pavement is a bare limestone surface from which the
soil has been removed by glaciers and then the exposed rock is dissolved
by rain water. In foreground deep vertical fissures (grikes) in the
limestones.
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Saturday 25.03.2017
A close-up photo showing the nature of the Carboniferous limestones
derived from marine organisms with fossils of crinoids and corals.
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Saturday 25.03.2017
The field trip continues at the Poulnabrone geosite, a megalithic tomb
that is one of Ireland’s most iconic archaeological monuments. It is the
oldest dated megalithic monument in Ireland as Poulnabrone revealed the
remains of 36 individuals in the main tomb chamber and radiocarbon
dating of their bones provided a date range of between 5,800 and 5,200
years ago.
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Saturday 25.03.2017
Poulnabrone portal tomb is located on the high Burren limestone plateau,
about 150 m above sea level. A panel deals with the geology, ecology and
farming of the Poulnabrone area.
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Saturday 25.03.2017
Around the Poulnabrone geosite a dry-stone wall shows a characteristic
arrangement of the blocks from the bedrock, i.e. the Carboniferous
limestones.
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Saturday 25.03.2017
A period of prolonged rainfall allows us to enjoy the Carran Turlough
filled with water which, otherwise, it is normally drained and empty.
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Saturday 25.03.2017
The field trip ends at Kilfenora which gives us an unforgettable sunset!
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back to Conference page |
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