The first stage of the Jubilee 80th Tour de Pologne will kick off and finish this Saturday in Poznań. The route of this unique cycling race will pass through Moraska Mountain. Students and employees of the Faculty of Geographical and Geological Science are scheduled to turn up at the climb to support the riders. However, they have already prepared a handful of interesting facts about the area so well known by our scientists.
- The highest hill in the northern part of Poznań is Moraska Mountain (154 metres above sea level), belonging to a belt of post-glacial moraines formed about 18,500 years ago.
- On the slopes of the moraine Moraska Mountain, there are seven depressions in the terrain interpreted as impact craters formed by the fall of a meteor shower about 5,000 years ago.
- The area of 57 hectares has been protected as part of the 'Morasko Meteorite' nature reserve to preserve unique sites of animate and inanimate nature.
- Within the reserve and its surroundings, fragments of iron meteorites have been found, the presence of which is linked to the biggest fall of the iron meteor shower in Central Europe.
- The largest meteorite specimen in Poland weighs 231 kg. It is located in the Earth Museum of the Faculty of Geographical and Geological Sciences at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań.
- In recent years, scientists at the Institute of Geology of the Adam Mickiewicz University have found two new minerals in the Morasko meteorite, previously unknown on Earth, which have been named moraskoite and czochralskiite.
- The name Czochralskiite selected for the newly described mineral comes from Professor Jan Czochralski, who was born in Wielkopolska. He is the most cited Polish scientist due to the widespread use of his method, developed by him for growing monocrystals used in electronics.
photo credit: Tour de Pologne website
