Catalyst's Dan Tormey Co-Authors Case for Georgia's First UNESCO Global Geopark
Catalyst Managing Director Daniel Tormey, PhD, has co-authored a new peer-reviewed study alongside Georgian colleagues Avtandil Okrostsvaridze, Mirian Makadze, Giorgi Boichenko, Salome Gogoladze, and Rabi Gabrielshvili published in the journal Geoheritage making the scientific case for the Vardzia region of southern Georgia to become the country's first UNESCO Global Geopark.
Despite holding more than 330 recorded natural monuments, Georgia has no designated geopark and rarely puts its geological values forward in international heritage listings. The paper, written with a team of Georgian colleagues, identifies Vardzia as the nation's strongest candidate territory to change that.
At the heart of the case is a remarkable union of geology and culture. The Vardzia rock-cut city, a 12th-century cave monastery complex built under Queen Tamar, is carved directly into the Mtkvari Ignimbrite Flow, a laterally extensive volcanic deposit that serves as a traceable, datable marker bed across the region. The study highlights how the site captures a rare phenomenon: explosive volcanism within an active continental collision zone, a setting far less represented in global geoheritage than volcanic arcs or hotspots.
The authors document seven geosites within the proposed territory, spanning staged volcanic activity from the Late Miocene through the Late Pleistocene, along with an exceptionally preserved fossilized wood site, the only one of its kind in the Caucasus. Together, these features tell a continuous deep-time story that visitors could one day experience as a single traversable route.
Beyond the science, the paper examines the region's readiness for geopark designation, including its established conservation programs, university partnerships, existing tourism infrastructure, and engaged local communities of guides, farmers, winemakers, and artisans. The study concludes that Vardzia, where geological process and cultural heritage are genuinely inseparable, is well suited to become a cornerstone of Georgia's emerging geotourism network and a candidate for the country's first UNESCO Global Geopark designation.
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