Land of Extinct Volcanoes—Rock-Controlled Landforms, Postglacial Gorges, and Faulted Margin of the Sudetes

The “Land of Extinct Volcanoes” is an informal name of a part of south-western Poland that includes the Kaczawskie Mountains and the Kaczawskie Foothills in the West Sudetes as well as the adjacent fore-mountain area. The legacy of several periods of volcanic activity in the Paleozoic and Cenozoic is the most distinctive component of regional geoheritageGeoheritage and finds its geomorphic expression in the occurrence of hills and ridges built of more resistant volcanic rocks. Among them, basaltic cones and domes are particularly clear and serve as regional landmarks. Further valuable elements of geomorphological diversity include torsTor and cragsCrag, periglacialPeriglacial blockfieldsBlockfield (block field) and stepped hillslopes, sandstoneSandstone cuestasCuesta with associated rock towersRock tower, boulder fieldsBoulder field and non-karstic rock shelters, karstic features, gorgesGorge cut by glacial meltwatersMeltwater during the decay of the Scandinavian ice sheetIce sheet, and the fault-generated marginal escarpment of the Sudetes. The pending application for the status of a UNESCO Global GeoparkUNESCO Global Geopark reflects both the international dimension of regional geoheritageGeoheritage and the considerable involvement of local communities to promote tourism based on geoscience-related values.