Volcanic Geoheritage and Geotouristic Potential of the Gegham Monogenetic Volcanic Upland (Armenia)

Volcanic geoheritage includes a variety of geological, environmental, and scenic landscapes that are shaped by volcanic activity and often intertwined with sites of historical and cultural significance. Armenia, a country straddling the boundary between the Eurasian, European and Arabian tectonic plates, has a rich and often unique geological past, and its post-collisional Quaternary volcanism is giving rise to numerous features that contribute to its geoheritage of local and international significance. Manifestations of Quaternary volcanism of Armenia are highly diverse and include – stratovolcanoes, calderas, monogenetic volcanic fields, and rhyolite domes. The eruption products and landforms consist of various lava flows, such as coulées and plateau basalts, along with columnar joints, thick ash fallout deposits, multiple thick ignimbrite plateaus, and world – renowned obsidian bearing lavas. The compositional diversity of Quaternary volcanic products spans from picrobasalts and basanites to rhyolites. Overall, Armenia’s volcanic landscapes contain numerous significant volcanological features and phenomena. This paper aims to highlight the status of Armenia’s volcanic geoheritage, with particular focus on the Gegham Volcanic Upland situated between the capital city of Yerevan and Lake Sevan. We provide an up-to-date quantitative assessment of geodiversity of this area, which categorizes the evaluation outputs for geotourism potential. Geoheritage score was developed based on the scientific, geoeducational, and geotourism values of region’s geosites.