Sea stone: name, description. Types of sea stones

All the pebbles of this world, with the exception of pieces of man-made bricks, cinder blocks and glass charred by the sea, came out either from water or from fire, and its age is estimated at tens of thousands and even millions of years. A long time ago Caucasian mountains(and with them the territory of the city of Sochi), peers of the Alps, Carpathians, Crimea and the Himalayas, were the bottom of a huge warm ocean. Year after year, century after century, eroded particles of rocks carried by the rivers of the fore-continents or the remains of plants and marine life were deposited in layers, forming strata of sedimentary rocks. Over time, the movement of lithospheric plates formed folds from which the modern Caucasus grew - therefore, on mountain peaks, for example, on Mount Fisht or on Aibga, organic limestones are found along with limestones of chemogenic and detrital origin - whole fossilized coral reefs, the remains of huge ammonite mollusks, prints skeletons of ancient fish and shark teeth. Quite different stones came out of the fire - basalts, gabbro, granites. These rocks formed frozen on the ground or underground flows of magma or lava. There is also a third type of rocks - metamorphic, formed from sedimentary or magmatic rocks under the influence of high pressures or temperatures.

In addition to standard basalts and limestones, corn cobs and dead jellyfish, the Sochi surf can bring semi-precious stones to your feet - red and yellow jaspers. Red, hematite, fall into the sea from the upper reaches of the Mzymta, yellow - along Sochinka from the Plastunsky upland. In the 30s of the last century, gold was panned on the coastline within the city limits - a whole artel worked. In the second half of the twentieth century, the mines were closed as unprofitable, but the fact remains that if in the village of Magnituri near Batumi people bask on the healing magnetic sand, then in Sochi - on gold.

SCAPP asked geologist Alexander Trenbach to select and label rock samples from common Black Sea pebbles on one of the typical city beaches. The scientific laboratory of the Sirius Educational Center assisted in a more detailed study of the samples and obtaining images from a digital microscope.

Limestone

This sedimentary rock is fine-grained, depending on the impurities, the stone can be pink, white, gray, sometimes black, red or even yellowish. It is widely used in construction, the chemical industry - limestone is used to produce lime, and in general it is a very useful material for agriculture, metallurgy and other industries.

Sandstone

Another popular coastal sedimentary rock, granular and cemented, is considered a frequent companion of gold. Due to impurities, it can be yellowish, brown, black and green. Used mainly in construction. The largest sandstone deposit in Sochi is located in the village of Soloniki, where a quarry is being developed.

Mudstones and siltstones

Rocks that are intermediate between clays and sandstones. Dense, layered, suitable for the manufacture of expanded clay, which, by the way, is also produced in Sochi, at a building materials plant. Argillites are grey. Siltstones can be gray, black, green and red.

Gravelite and conglomerate

Sedimentary rocks of large particles cemented by clay or other materials of various origins. Durable stones are used as a building material.

Roofing slate

Sedimentary, clay rock, which is easy to split into fairly strong and thin layers of 3-5 cm. In Sochi, in the upper reaches of the Mzymta, a slate mine worked to extract natural tiles - an environmentally friendly and reliable material.

gneisses

Favorite stones of vacationers to create monumental inscriptions on beaches like "Barnaul 2016" or "Lyusya + Ashot". This is a metamorphic rock formed from sandstones interspersed with silver particles of moscovite or mica. It looks very nice, it is used in construction, although it does not have such strength as granite.

Granites

Granites of various shades are often found on city beaches. They are carried ashore by the Mzymta and Shakhe rivers. This is an igneous rock, consisting of quartz (up to 30%), feldspars, amphiboles and micas. A strong and durable material for the construction and cladding of buildings, embankments and bridges.

Diorites and andesites

Diorites and andesites are igneous rocks in which the quartz content is 10 - 15%. The rest of the mass is amphiboles, potassium feldspars and plagioclases. Suitable for building purposes.

Gabbro and basalts

These rocks are of igneous origin. They consist of pyroxenes, to a lesser extent, amphiboles, plagioclases, and feldspars. Quartz is absent in these rocks. White inclusions in basalts are represented by zeolites.

The young, still developing world always consists of stone, water and fire. This is what the planet looked like a billion years ago. A sky overcast with storm clouds reflecting the flames of erupting volcanoes, and a raging, eternally stormy sea.

In the crazy chaos of lightning, thunder and the roar of volcanoes was born. This is it today, cozy and green, but then everything looked completely different. The land, trembling nervously in continuous waves, spewed out of itself what would later become basalt and gneiss.

The mountains, crawling on each other like gigantic monsters, gnawed and maimed each other, dropping huge blocks of granite and gabbro.

Only with the passage of time did the earth gradually get rid of the birth pangs and calm down, from time to time throwing columns of volcanic eruptions into the gradually clearing sky and trembling with the rocky surface, crumbling and grinding individual blocks and rocks.

water world

The climate became gradually milder. Warm waters filled lowlands and depressions, and such life was born in them. Outlandish crustaceans and mollusks spread in warm seas surprisingly abundant. Dying away, they literally covered the bottom with their shells and shells. More and more mollusks appeared in warm brackish water, the layer of their remains at the bottom became thicker and denser and harder. Collapsing under their own weight, the shells were mixed, as if growing together with each other, turning into solid blocks of stone.

A rolling stone does not grow moss

Those stones that are found in Everyday life, in most cases, the remains of either destroyed sedimentary rocks, which makes up approximately 75% of the total number of stones, or metamorphic rocks of the order of 18–20%, that is, rocks that have changed inside the earth under the influence of pressure and temperature. Everything else is igneous rocks, such as granites and basalts. Source rocks from the depths of the planet.

All these boulder stones acquired their present form mainly as a result of weathering on land and rolling in the water of rivers. Only an insignificant part of the remnant stones on the plains has retained, if not the original, then at least a fairly ancient appearance, but weathering has also affected them, this is especially noticeable in the case when a boulder or remnant is composed of sedimentary rocks, which are relatively easily destroyed as a result of atmospheric phenomena. As an example, one can cite the characteristic figures of weathering in the valley of ghosts on South Demerdzhi in the Crimean mountains.

There were several classifications precious stones. Now it is generally accepted to divide them into 3 categories. The first includes the rarest and most expensive, the third includes ornamental stones. Not only jewelry is made from minerals, but also figurines, talismans and other carved figures.

Gemstones are gems with a hardness greater than 6 and the ability to scatter light. They are characterized by a uniform color or lack of color, wear resistance, resistance to aggressive environments and fading. They belong to high-quality raw materials, most of them are cut.

The hardness scale was invented in 1811 by the German scientist Friedrich Moos. It was based on the principle of comparing rocks of different hardness. The hardest stone is diamond.

Another group of stones is called ornamental. These include crystals, including opaque ones, and stones with inclusions and patterns. Carvings, decorations are made from them, used for finishing work.

There are several types of gems, professionals divide them into 3 groups, depending on their value. This classification was proposed by V. Ya. Kievlenko.

According to the classification of M. Bauer, all gems are divided into precious, ornamental and organogenic stones, which include amber, pearls and coral. The most expensive are natural stones, very rare in nature.

The minerals presented in the first group are called jewelry (precious) and are divided into 4 categories.

1. The most is diamond, followed by sapphire (blue), ruby ​​and emerald.
2. Orange, green and purple sapphires are cheaper than blue ones, jadeite, alexandrite, pearls, black opal.
3. Demantoid, topaz, aquamarine, red tourmaline, the most valuable among opals are fire and white.
4. Turquoise, tourmaline, amethyst, beryl, chrysolite, beryl (pink, yellow), chrysoprase.

Jewelry can vary greatly in value, since several criteria affect the price of a stone at once. The four main ones are clarity, color, weight and cut.

After cutting, the color of the finished insert is evaluated by tone, saturation and hue. Emeralds and rubies have one main color, but there can be several shades of it. Tourmalines and topazes can be different color, each of which has a certain value. The handwork of the master cutter allows the gem to play and sparkle in good light, bringing out the natural beauty of the mineral. The cost of rare large gems can increase exponentially in relation to their mass.

Group 2 includes colored and jewelry and ornamental stones. It consists of two groups.

1. Malachite, amber, smoky quartz, jade, hematite, jadeite, rock crystal.
2. Opaque feldspars, heliotrope, agate, rose quartz, common opal, colored chalcedony.

These stones are well polished and used as an insert in jewelry and are used for souvenirs and figurines.

The third group consists of ornamental stones. These include: fluorite, selenite, colored marble, granite, jasper, obsidian, jet, aventurine quartzite. Large products are cut out of them, the height of which can reach several tens of centimeters.

Mineral prices may change when new deposits are discovered or influenced by fashion. Only specialists can distinguish a synthetic stone from a natural one, since they are similar in physical and chemical properties to natural gems.

Quiet sunny morning. We are on the Black Sea, somewhere on a rocky coast, for example, at the foot of the Karadag rocks.

These are those hours of complete silence, when the night wind from the land has not yet been replaced by the daytime sea wind. The almost motionless sea changes its colors every minute, reflecting the sky and coastal rocks, illuminated by bright rays.

Nothing disturbs the serenity of the early morning. A winged predator circles lazily high above the rocks. Even the busy seagulls have quieted down and are sitting in groups on the shore, as if waiting for something.

Quiet on the seabed. Between the coastal cliffs it is clearly visible to a great depth. The stalks of brown algae are barely noticeably swaying, their dense thickets resemble some kind of dwarf fantastic forest. A chiseled figure of a seahorse has separated from a stalk of seaweed and, quickly moving its tiny fins, soars over a forest of algae. One of the stalks suddenly stirred and, gently curving, floated between the stones. Behind him is another. But these are not stems, but very thin needle fish. Where there are fewer algae and the bottom is lined with multi-colored Karadag pebbles, flocks of tiny mullet fry quickly sweep by. A huge black crab crawled out from under the stone, stirring up the water, moving its claws, stood still in thought, looked fiercely at underwater world bulging eyes and crawled sideways under another stone.

Silence and peace in nature involuntarily give rise to the idea of ​​the eternal inviolability of stone cliffs and rocks, piled up on the coast. And it seems that there is no such force that could destroy these motionless masses ...

But a light breeze blew from the sea. The smallest ripples covered the surface of the water in long stripes. The sky is still clear, only far on the horizon, like a lonely sail, a white cloud has appeared.

Several minutes pass. The cloud grows, branches, becomes gray. Another moment - and, having become completely lead, it approaches the shore with a huge clawed paw. The sun has disappeared. Strong gusts of wind break the tops of the waves and throw them on the shore. The rocks become wet and slippery.

Seagulls shot up into the air and with a cry, now falling, now soaring up, quickly sweep over the sea. The waves keep growing and growing, and finally three-meter shafts fall on the shore. The stone, from which we first observed the seabed, now and then disappears under their crests. Another minute, and a solid wall of rain hid the horizon ...

If a biologist prefers calm weather for observations, then for a geologist who wants to see the action of external geological forces, storms and downpours provide the richest material.

A downpour produces a destructive work of tremendous force, especially in mountainous regions, where the streams of water formed by a downpour rush down the slopes of mountains, gullies and mountain streams at high speed, washing away and carrying into the sea an enormous amount of stone detrital material.

Most of all, fine particles of clayey and sandy loose rocks are removed. These particles are easily moved by water currents, even at low speeds. It is clear that the soil cover of treeless slopes suffers most from rainstorms in mountainous areas. Sometimes dozens of hectares of fertile soils are washed away. At the same time, soils and other loose rocks saturated with moisture can form powerful mudflows, mudflows, of terrible destructive power. Rushing along the slopes, mudflows sweep away orchards, vineyards and even entire villages on their way.

However, such catastrophic events are relatively rare. Usually, surface waters wash out and carry out the smallest particles of rocks that are in suspension in the water, and large fragments - pebbles, cobblestones and boulders - move, rolling along the bottom of mountain streams.

All detrital material washed off the land surface is eventually carried out to the sea and deposited on its bottom. At the same time, it is quite regularly distributed on the seabed according to the size of the debris.

Everyone visiting Crimea knows very well that on the beach South Shore, as well as other places of the mountain coast, there are many fragments of rocks and pebbles of various sizes. If you go down to the bottom of the sea 100-150 meters from the pebble shore, it will be lined with small pebbles (gravel) and coarse sand. At great depths, the bottom is covered with fine-grained sand, which becomes thinner and thinner with increasing depth, and at depths reaching hundreds of meters, the sea bottom is covered with a continuous layer of silt.

Such a distribution of clastic material on the seabed is explained by the unequal mobility of water. Off the coast, in the surf zone, where water is almost always in motion, sand particles, and even more so silt, cannot settle, only large pebbles remain in this zone. At greater depths, where the sea surface disturbance does not affect the bottom sediments so much, for example, at a depth of 10-15 meters, sand particles are deposited, and, finally, at a depth of more than a hundred meters, where even the excitement of strong storms does not disturb the silence of the bottom sediments. waters, - the smallest particles of silt smaller than 0.01 millimeters are deposited. Only the bottom currents of great sea depths sometimes stir up and move the muddy; sediment.

In the regions of the seabed most remote from the coast, even silt particles are almost not deposited, since most of the clay material settles, although at considerable depths, but closer to the coast from which it comes. Only wind-blown dust can be deposited on the seabed at a great distance from the shore.

There are also deviations from this regularity in the distribution of marine sediments. For example, the Evpatoria beach does not contain pebbles and consists entirely of shell sand; the bottom is also lined with it for many hundreds of meters from the coast. In the surf zone on the Black Sea coast of the Kerch Peninsula, in some places there are no sands; here, from the very coast to considerable depths, the bottom of the sea is covered with silty sediments. This is explained by the fact that the land of the Evpatoria coast is composed of loose shell limestone and sandy-clayey rocks, while the coast of the Kerch Peninsula in places is composed only of clays. It is clear that these loose rocks, when washed out and destroyed by surface waters, easily disintegrate into composite fine-grained particles without forming large fragments and, thus, there is no zone of coarse-grained marine sediments here. The rocks of the Crimean mountain coast are composed of more ancient, compacted, strongly cemented sedimentary rocks and very strong - igneous. Due to their density, these rocks are preserved in large fragments for a long time, even when surface waters carry them over long distances.

Surface waters carry debris into the sea, and sea waves in the surf zone, in turn, perform continuous destructive work, which is especially intensified during storms. In the rocky shores, they develop niches and various ravines, sometimes of the most bizarre shape (for example, the original gully already known to us was formed - the Karadag Gate). The washed-out shores lose their stability, and from time to time, rock falls occur, cluttering up the coast with debris. If the coastal rocks are loose or weakly cemented, and the coasts are high and steep, then coastal slopes slide. Landslides often reach enormous proportions and cause severe damage in coastal areas. The clastic material formed as a result of the activity of sea waves is distributed along the seabed in the same regular way as the debris brought by surface waters. This is how sedimentary marine clastic rocks, otherwise called terrigenous (terra - earth), begin their formation at the bottom of the sea, since the particles from which they are formed come from the surface of the land - from the earth.

The organic life of the sea also creates large accumulations of sediment on the seabed.

Anyone who has been to the Evpatoria beach or other places on the coast of the steppe Crimea or the Kerch Peninsula, of course, saw here a myriad of mollusk shells. In calm weather, at shallow depths, live mollusks can also be observed moving slowly along the bottom or attached to underwater rocks or algae.

There are especially many bivalve ribbed shells of the cardium edule mollusk, or cockles, painted in various shades of pinkish and lilac tones. Less common are oblong, claw-like shells of zolens and rather large beautiful shells of pectens, or, in other words, scallops. Where the shore abounds with underwater rocks or algae, one can find accumulations of black pear-shaped mussel shells, which form huge colonies called banks. In addition to the listed mollusks, there are many others. Small balanus crustaceans, which are also enclosed in a conical calcareous shell, are often attached to pitfalls and to the valves of large shells. These crustaceans are also called sea acorns.

Mollusk shells are also found near rocky shores, but they are most numerous in relatively shallow parts of the sea, where the bottom is lined with sand mixed with silt.

There are especially a lot of bottom mollusks, in particular cockles and scallops, inhabiting depths from 15 to 35 meters.

Over time, the calcareous shells of dying mollusks form many-meter layers on the sea bottom, and if it has a gentle slope, then the strip of shell deposits reaches a width of several kilometers. The waves of the surf carry the shells and their fragments to the shore, and thus there are extensive shell-like beaches, similar to Evpatoria.

This is how rocks of biological origin begin to form on the seabed, or, as they are called, biogenic, because the shell of a mollusk consists of calcium carbonate, which is extracted by the mollusk from a solution of sea water and precipitated by it in the form of a solid.

In addition to biogenic sediments, precipitation of chemical origin can be formed. These are various substances that precipitate in the form of crystals at the bottom of closed pools as a result of strong evaporation of water saturated with salts.

Such sediments include: self-precipitating table salt, Glauber's salt, gypsum and many other salts.

Some substances contained in river waters precipitate when these waters are mixed with sea salt water. So, for example, solutions of iron and manganese salts of river waters, falling into a salty sea basin, precipitate, forming silts enriched with these elements. These silts eventually turn into iron and manganese ores of sedimentary origin.

Calcium carbonate can also precipitate when the water temperature changes. In colder waters, the solubility of calcium carbonate is greater than in warm ones; heating water leads to its partial precipitation.

This is, in general terms, the process of formation on the seabed of thick layers of sediments of terrigenous, biogenic and chemical origin.

Centuries and millennia pass. More and more precipitation accumulates at the bottom of the sea, especially in its coastal zones, due to continuous erosion by surface waters of the attached land. And if the earth's crust were in constant rest, then over time there would be no the globe continents, and there would be a continuous shallow ocean. But this does not happen and cannot happen, since the earth's crust is constantly in motion, sinking and rising, which, in turn, entails the advance of the sea on land and the retreat of sea waters from it. This is how deep sea depressions and high mountain systems are formed.

If land subsidence occurs, then the sea advances on the shore, and then coastal pebble deposits are at a greater depth and sands and silts or shell formations are deposited on top of them. In this way, interbedding of sedimentary rocks of different composition is created. If the land rises, then part of the marine sediments appears on the surface of the earth, and deeper marine sediments, for example, silts, are in a shallow zone, and then pebbles and sands are deposited on top of them.

Fluctuations in the earth's crust occur continuously and almost always very slowly and imperceptibly, but over a long geological time, measured in hundreds of thousands and millions of years, individual sections of the earth move vertically for several kilometers, and therefore we can observe how ancient marine sediments sometimes lie on mountain tops.

Over a huge period of time, loose, loose or plastic bottom sediments of the sea gradually compact and turn into hard stone sedimentary rock, which reappears on the surface of the earth after centuries, is subjected to the destructive influence of atmospheric forces, and again its fragments or salts dissolved in water enter the sea and are deposited. at its bottom.

Such is the continuous process of destruction and formation of sedimentary rocks, the primary material of which was still igneous rocks.

We talked about the process of formation of sedimentary rocks at the bottom of the sea. Sedimentary rocks are also created on land. Various detrital material deposited by surface waters and wind also accumulates here. But the scale of accumulation of continental sedimentary rocks is negligible in comparison with marine ones. And the existence of continental precipitation is usually short-lived. Most often, they are quickly washed out and carried to the sea.

In a word, land is a place of predominantly the destruction of stone by external geological forces, and the sea is the area of ​​formation of stone rocks and minerals of sedimentary origin.

The surface of the Crimean peninsula is more than 99% composed of sedimentary rocks of various composition and geological age. All these rocks are of marine origin, and only the relatively thin cover of loams and soils overlying them belongs to relatively recent continental formations.

Stones of sedimentary origin are very diverse, and many of them are minerals, that is, mineral wealth that is used in the national economy.

Let's head now along the highway from Simferopol to Alushta. When descending from the pass, two kilometers from the highway, on its left side, a huge array of Mount Demerdzhi rises. On the top of the mountain and its slopes facing the sea, numerous pillars and towers of bizarre shape stand out. One of these pillars resembles a bust of Catherine II, and therefore Demerdzhi is sometimes called Ekaterin-mountain.

From a distance, the mountain is undeniably picturesque, but this is not enough for a geologist, he always strives to get to know the material from which its cliffs are made.

The best and easiest way to get to the top of Demerdzhi is from the Alushta pass. This will save you several hundred meters of ascent, as the height of the mountain exceeds 1200 meters.

Passing along the western slope of Demerdzhi, you will see a heap of huge blocks of stone below. This is a grand collapse, which in the last century destroyed the village, located at the foot of the mountain.

Mount Demerdzhi is composed of sedimentary rocks - conglomerates, which are strongly cemented pebbles. Now we already know that these are marine coastal deposits of some ancient sea or ancient river delta. Mountain conglomerates in time belong to the Jurassic period, 110-120 million years distant from us. It is not surprising that for such a long period of time, the coastal pebbles were firmly cemented and turned out to be more than 1200 meters above sea level.

The conglomerates of Mount Demerdzhi are a very strong rock, they slowly succumb to the influence of external forces. But still, wind, water and temperature fluctuations do their destructive work, again turning the conglomerate into a pebble. As a result of the centuries-old action of these forces, those bizarre pillars and towers that are visible from afar were formed. Here, on the top of the mountain, these pillars are especially majestic, and it is not even believed that they were created by the activity of external geological forces.

If we look closely at the pebbles that make up the conglomerate, we can find a wide variety of rocks among them. Here we will meet black pebbles of dense sandstones and shales, milky-white pebbles of quartz, red patterned pebbles of granite igneous rock unknown in the Crimea. Occasionally there are black shiny pebbles of the ore mineral hematite.

Black pebbles of dense sandstones and shales are fragments of rocks older than conglomerates. Shales also belong to the Jurassic rocks, but formed at the beginning of the Jurassic period, and are marine sediments of great depths. Numerous quartz pebbles are also representatives of older rocks than conglomerates. Igneous granite pebbles and hematite pebbles belong to even more ancient rocks, almost unknown in the Crimea. Only near the city of Balaklava was found small rock granite, but Demerdzhi pebbles, completely different from granite.

Where did granite fragments get into the Jurassic Sea?

Many scientists believe that in the Jurassic time, there was land to the north of Demerdzhi, composed of rocks unknown in the Crimea in our time. Later, this land sank to a great depth and formed a giant depression, which was filled with the waters of the Black Sea. Traces of the former existence of this land are imprinted in its fragments - pebbles enclosed in the Demerdzhi conglomerates.

The conglomerate is used by the local population as a rubble stone for the foundations of buildings, but it is not widely used as a building stone, since it is difficult to process.

Let's leave the top of Demerdzhi with its bizarre forms of weathering and go down to the southeastern slope of the mountain. Here we will see completely different rocks - shales and sandstones underlying the Demerdzhi conglomerates.

These thin-layered almost black rocks are widespread along the entire southern and southeastern coast of Crimea. Their distinctive feature is that in many places they are strongly crumpled into folds and fissured. One can even observe folds of the second and third order, when the wing of one giant fold, in turn, is crumpled and consists of smaller folds, and the latter are also crumpled into small folds several tens of centimeters in size.

Shales and sandstones of the Black Sea coast of Crimea are among the most ancient rocks, formed at the end of the Triassic and the beginning of the Jurassic. These rocks are not subdivided in more detail by age, since they do not contain fossilized organic remains. They were given a common name - the Tauride strata.

It is easy to see that the rocks of the Taurian strata, like a layer cake, consist of layers of black thin-layered clay shales, interspersed with layers of dense sandstones. Consequently, these sediments, as well as conglomerates, are of clastic - terrigenous origin, but they were formed not in the coastal zone, but at greater depths, where fine clay particles could be deposited, from which shales were formed. During the deposition of these sediments, the depth of the sea changed continuously: at times the sea became shallower, and then sands were deposited, at times it became deeper again, and the deposition of clay particles resumed. Thus, the oscillatory process of the earth's crust was reflected in the nature of the structure of this sedimentary stratum. During the formation of rocks of the Tauride strata in the lagoons and bays of the Jurassic Sea, in addition to clastic material, a large amount of plant remains accumulated, which turned out to be buried under the ides of lagoons and bays and have survived to our time in the form of coal beds. Coal in sandy-shale deposits is found in many places in the Crimea. Known, for example, Beshui mines, located in the upper reaches of the river. Kachi. For some time these mines were developed, and coal was used for local needs. Interlayers of petrified resin - jet - are often found in coal seams. The jet is easy to process, and various small items and decorations can be made from it.

Black Taurian shales easily delaminate into thin tiles, but, unfortunately, do not large sizes. Perhaps it will be possible to find a mass of these rocks in which the slates will not be so crushed, and then thin tiles of large sizes can be used as roofing material. Thick sandstone tiles are widely used by the local population: fences and even walls are laid out of them, mainly for outbuildings.

If we go around Mount Demerdzhi from the southeast and, going to the village of Generalskoye, climb up the Khopkhal gorge, then we will find ourselves in the area of ​​distribution of other sedimentary rocks - limestones occurring on the Jurassic conglomerates.

In the Crimea, limestones are widely distributed and belong to different geological ages. The limestones in the Khopkhal gorge are the most ancient limestones of the Crimea, they are attributed to the Upper Jurassic. They form most of the peaks and plateaus of the mountainous part of the peninsula. These plateaus are called yayls in the Crimea.

Climbing the Khopkhal gorge, which is difficult to pass, we will reach the Tyrke ridge, which connects two large yayla: Demerdzhi-yayla in the southwest and Karabi-yayla in the northeast.

The surface of the yayla is devoid of woody vegetation and is a slightly hilly plain, in places covered with grasses, in places bare, rocky. Sometimes small groups of dwarf pines, twisted by continuous winds, grow in the folds of the terrain. Being in the center of the yayla, you forget that you have risen to a height of more than 1000 meters above sea level and that below you, on the southern and northern slopes of the yayla, there is a typical mountain landscape and lush vegetation. This contrast is especially noticeable after the picturesque Hopkhal Gorge with its waterfalls and ancient forest.

We already know that limestones are in most cases of biological origin and less often formed as a chemical precipitate.

The Yaylin limestones are also biogenic sediments with some admixture of sandy-clayey material, so they have a light gray color. There are also fairly pure limestones of white or light yellow color. Insignificant impurities of iron, manganese and other elements often create a beautiful pattern, which is clearly revealed when the stone is polished.

Examining limestone, one can notice organic remains contained in it in the form of shells and corals, indicating that this limestone is of marine and biological origin. But tens of millions of years that have passed since the burial of these organisms with a calcareous skeleton at the bottom of the sea, and huge pressure caused strong changes in calcareous sediments. They turned into a dense rock, in which the primary calcium carbonate recrystallized, and therefore the shell valves and corals enclosed in the stone merge with the total mass of the stone and are sometimes difficult to distinguish.

Such dense recrystallized limestones, which can be easily polished, are called marble-like.

An array of gray marble-like limestones, located near Yalta, is being mined, and the extracted stone is used to make various handicrafts: writing instruments, table decorations and other small items. Slabs for facing buildings and some architectural decorations are also made from marble-like limestone.

In the Crimea there is also real marble, the deposits of which are located near the city of Balaklava. The pattern of Crimean marble is elegant and whimsical, thanks to the remains of shells and corals contained in it, and the combination of delicate yellowish tones with bright red and brown hues gives a special charm to the polished surface of this stone. Facing slabs were made of Crimean marble, decorating some of the Moscow metro lobbies. Perhaps the first man in the history of stone culture used marble as a material for sculptural works and architectural decorations. For these purposes, marble was used in ancient Greece.

In tsarist Russia, almost no marble was mined. This stone was imported mainly from Greece and went almost exclusively to decorate the royal palaces and dwellings of the rich.

Now, in our time of grandiose construction projects of communism and the flourishing of Soviet culture and art, marble, as never before in history, has found wide application in our country. At the same time, we use domestic marble, which is distinguished by the beauty of the pattern and the variety of colors. Our marble can be seen in the halls of the Moscow Palace of Science - University. Lomonosov, in the wonderful palaces of the All-Union Agricultural Exhibition, at the facilities of the Volga-Don Canal named after. V. I. Lenin and on many other buildings in various cities of our Motherland.

Marble is widely used in industry. As an excellent insulating material, it is used to make switchboards and various insulating parts. Marble-like and generally dense pure limestones are used in the metallurgical industry as fluxes.

Marble is easy to process: sawing, carving, grinding and polishing. However, marble products, although durable, are not eternal. In this regard, marble is in many ways inferior to igneous rocks.

Academician A.E. Fersman calculated that, on average, a layer of marble 1 millimeter thick dissolves per century. On the time scale of human life, this is an insignificant value, although it should not be neglected. On the scale of geological time, marble and limestone are considered as easily soluble rocks. Multiply, for example, a value of 1 millimeter by ten thousand times and you get a layer of 10 meters. A layer of this thickness will dissolve within one million years, and in the history of the earth this is a very short period of time, approximately one three thousandth of the time that has elapsed since the beginning of the formation of the earth's crust. At the same time, it should be taken into account that in the relevant natural conditions limestone rocks can dissolve much more intensively than one millimeter per hundred years.

Limestone is especially quickly dissolved by waters containing carbonic acid, which is secreted in large quantities by the roots of plants; it dissolves in other natural acids.

Pay attention to the surface of the Crimean yayla. Here in some places there are funnel-shaped depressions and dips. Sometimes in the center of the failure there is a channel that goes deeper. The exposed limestones in the low places of the yayla have a peculiar hummocky surface and from a distance resemble a herd of grazing sheep. All this is the result of the dissolution of limestone by surface waters, a phenomenon called karst.

Penetrating through the cracks into the depths of the limestone massif, the water continues to dissolve the limestone, forming channels through which underground rivers sometimes flow rapidly. Over time, galleries and huge caves form on their way. Sometimes water reappears on the surface in the form of powerful springs. Such springs, for example, include the well-known Ayan spring in the Crimea, located on the northern spurs of the Chatyrdag (Tent Mountain) and supplying the city of Simferopol with water.

We started our acquaintance with limestone and marble of the Crimea in the Khopkhal gorge. It would seem that it would not be worth taking the reader 20 kilometers from the Alushta highway to show him the limestone and acquaint him with the marbles of the Crimea, which can be easily seen on Ai-Petri and in the vicinity of Yalta, without even getting off the bus. But in this little known corner - the Hopkhal Gorge - during one route we have the opportunity to observe almost all the main varieties of sedimentary rocks - conglomerates, sandstones, clays and limestones. In addition, in the Hopkhal gorge we will see one of beautiful waterfalls Crimea, fed by underground karst waters, which, upon reaching the surface, release a huge amount of lime in the form of a light porous mass called calcareous tuff. And, finally, 5-6 kilometers northeast of the gorge is Karabi-yayla, which has the most pronounced forms of karst processes.

We have quite fully characterized marble and said little about limestone, from which, in fact, dense marbles are formed.

There is a lot of limestone in the Crimea, whole massifs in the mountains and huge strata of gently inclined layers in the steppe part of the peninsula are composed of it.

Widely known both in the Crimea and outside it are white, fairly dense limestones dating back to the end of the Cretaceous. They consist of calcareous skeletons of microscopic corals - bryozoans with an insignificant admixture of sandy-clay material. More often these rocks are called Inkerman stone, since it is mined in large quantities near Inkerman.

Durable Inkerman stone is widely used as a wall and facing building material. The hero city of Sevastopol, revived from the ruins, has been turned into one of the most beautiful cities in the country, and the buildings of this city owe their beauty to the snow-white or slightly yellowish Inkerman stone, with which the walls of all the buildings of the city are lined.

In the area of ​​Simferopol, Evpatoria, Kerch and in many other places of the foothill and steppe Crimea, a shell stone is widespread, consisting entirely of shells cemented by calcite, which once inhabited the shallow seas of the Tertiary period, covering the territory of the modern Crimean steppes and foothills.

Shell rock is a porous rock that is easily sawn into bars with an ordinary saw. It has incomparably less strength than Inkerman stone, and therefore houses are built from it one, rarely two stories high.

In Crimea, a brick building is as rare as a wooden one. All the cities of Crimea are built of stone, born at the bottom of the sea as a result of the centuries-old activity of marine organisms.

Although there are no brick buildings in the Crimea, bricks are produced in significant quantities for stoves, factory chimneys, and other building purposes. For the production of bricks, rock is also of sedimentary origin - clay. The clays formed at the beginning of the Cretaceous are considered the best for making bricks, roofing tiles, pipes and various pottery. The reserves of these clays are enormous, their layers extend from Balaklava along the foothills of the entire Crimea to Feodosia.

The reserves of marls are also huge - rocks of sedimentary origin, which are a cemented mixture of clay and calcareous particles. Marls are the main raw material for the manufacture of cement, which is not yet produced in the Crimea.

Limestones and marls are not rich in minerals. Sometimes they contain crystals of calcite and gypsum, which, however, do not differ in either beauty or size. In clays, one can find many beautiful gypsum crystals in the form of large roses or in the form of a dovetail. There are also round nodules of spherosiderite, accumulations and crusts of golden cubic crystals of pyrite. However, all these minerals are not rare, we can meet them everywhere and therefore we will not look for them in these rocks.

Terrigenous and biogenic sediments, as a rule, are poor in minerals visible to the naked eye, but when examining these rocks under a microscope, a mineralogist finds here a no less rich collection than in igneous rocks.

By examining sedimentary rocks under a microscope and identifying the microscopic crystals and fragments contained in them, geologists often manage to identify the land area from which these particles entered the ancient seas, and thus recreate the geography of the distant geological past.

Of exceptional interest are sedimentary rocks for those who wish to learn the history of the Crimea and the development of living organisms that inhabited its seas and land. Based on the fossilized remains of animals and plants, one can relatively fully and accurately reproduce the picture of life and landscapes that existed millions of years ago.

We do not intend to remain aloof from the geological history of the Crimea and will devote several pages to this issue at the end of the essay. Now let's get acquainted with the last and mineralogically most interesting group of sedimentary rocks - rocks of chemical origin.

We have already mentioned the processes of formation of various chemical precipitations, and now we will take a closer look at their variety - Kerch ores.

To do this, we will have to go again to the Kerch Peninsula, to the village of Arshintsevo, located on the steep bank of the Kerch Strait near the city of Kerch.

Arshintsevo is located in a large basin, bounded by a chain of low hills.

If you climb to the top of one of the hills, it is not difficult to see that a ridge of these heights borders a hollow on all sides with a village, mines and collective farm fields located in it; only in the east is it open towards the Kerch Strait.

The relief of the eastern and northern parts of the Kerch Peninsula is characterized by such basins, surrounded by ring-shaped chains of hills, composed of very strong limestones.

These limestones are made up of tiny corals we already know, called bryozoans. One can see foliated formations dotted with the smallest cells and tubules that served as a home for the microscopic organisms of these corals.

More than 10 million years ago, at the beginning of the Meotic century of the Tertiary period, the Kerch Peninsula was flooded by a shallow sea, and although the territory of the peninsula is significantly removed from the mountainous Crimea, where powerful mountain-building processes took place, the action of these forces also affected here. The earth layers of the Kerch Peninsula are also folded, although very flat. And where the crest of the folds rose, the bottom of the Maeotic sea became shallow, and in some places the rise was so significant that islands were formed. Along these islands, in shallow water, bryozoan corals lived. Gradually more and more more islands, bryozoan reefs increased in size, and thus, over time, lagoons formed, surrounded by a chain of bryozoan reefs.

In subsequent geological epochs, the lagoons were filled with more and more sediments, consisting either of sandy-clay material, or of numerous shell valves. Thanks to small, but incessant fluctuations of the land, the lagoons now shallowed, then became deeper. The climate at that time was temperate, with little rainfall.

Several million years passed, and the hot subtropical humid climate of the Cimmerian Age set in. Lagoons by that time were shallow, slightly saline basins, separated from each other by a chain of islands and peninsulas.

The hot humid climate caused a lush flowering of vegetation and intensive chemical decomposition of the land rocks surrounding the lagoons. The banks of the lagoons, overgrown with dense forests and swamps, saturated the streams and rivers flowing into the lagoons with organic and inorganic acids.

These waters leached iron, manganese and other elements from the surrounding rocks and soils and carried them in a dissolved state into the lagoons. In the lagoons, when mixed fresh water land with brackish lagoon waters, dissolved salts of iron and other elements precipitated, mixing with silty and sandy particles brought by the same streams. Various organic residues brought by the waters from the land decomposed at the bottom of the lagoons, providing abundant food for a variety of microorganisms, which in turn served as food for molluscs. Therefore, molluscs in the Cimmerian age were especially successful in breeding, differing in the diversity of species and reaching large sizes. In addition to shellfish, the lagoons were inhabited by fish and seals.

So for thousands of years there was an accumulation of silts saturated with iron at the bottom of the lagoons in the Cimmerian age.

Later, as a result of the general uplift of the land, the sea receded from the lagoons, the ferruginous sediments condensed, various minerals of iron, manganese, phosphorus, barium and other elements were formed in them, and they turned into iron ore of sedimentary chemical origin.

We will begin our acquaintance with the Kerch ores and their minerals from the coastal cliff of the Kerch Strait in Arshintsevo.

To do this, you need to go to the park of culture and recreation and go down the iron stairs to the beach of the Kerch Strait. Taking the direction to the south, you will soon see a forty-meter cliff wall, in places completely vertical, in places broken into giant steps by landslides. Layers of sedimentary rocks are clearly visible on the wall: on light yellow limestone, consisting of the smallest shells and their fragments, a dark brown layer of ore lies mixed with a certain amount of clay and fine sand, and above it are gray layers of sands and clays, younger than ore deposits, and at the very top of the cliff, light brown loams lie in a continuous cover.

We are interested in ore and its minerals, and we will deal with it.

The brown friable mass - iron ore - consists entirely of concentrically shell-like brittle brown balls called oolites. These balls, like crystals, grew in the ferruginous silt. Apparently, silty particles prevented the formation of real crystals, and ferruginous solutions were concentrated layer by layer around various small particles, penetrating the clayey mass of silt.

These oolites are composed of a mixture of various iron hydroxides, called the mineral limonite, with an admixture of a clay substance.

Among the brown oolites, black shiny ones sometimes come across, as if varnished. Their color indicates that these oolites, in addition to iron, contain a significant amount of manganese.

Among the oolitic ore mass are rounded, usually black from the surface, large nodules, sometimes reaching several tens of centimeters in diameter.

Similar formations are familiar to us from Karadag - these are nodules, but, in contrast to Karadag, of sedimentary origin. They arise in a dense ore mass, when solutions saturated with various mineral substances slowly circulating in the oolitic ore concentrate around some inclusions and deposit new minerals.

Some of the concretions are a kind of natural caskets containing beautiful crystals. However, many such caskets will have to be opened in order to find one or two that have a rich content.

Try to crack the concretion with a light hammer blow. Sometimes a cavity of considerable size is found in it, as if lined with black velvet with a bluish tint, with a delicate coating that stains the fingers. Often on this layer, like diamonds on black velvet, small transparent plates sparkle; black plaque is the mineral vad (manganese hydroxide), and sparkling plates are crystals of calcite known to us.

It happens that instead of a velvety coating, the nodule cavity is lined with a black, shiny, very dense crust; this is also manganese hydroxide - psilomelane.

Often in the cavities of nodules there are various minerals of phosphorus - phosphates, which are compounds of iron, manganese, calcium, phosphorus, oxygen and water.

Just like the zeolites of Karadag, these phosphates are famous throughout the Union. Nowhere else is there such a variety, such beautiful and large crystals. Many of the phosphates were first discovered here and given local names. Most often, brown crystals of oxykerchenite are found in concretions or in shell cavities, now separate long ones, now many short ones, directed in all directions, like hedgehog needles. Less common are dark blue, almost black, flat crystals of gamma and beta kerchenite. Relatively less common are dull green crystals of alpha-kerchenite. Occasionally you can find small bright light green needles of anapait.

In addition to the clearly crystalline phosphates, the so-called earthy varieties are often found, which are a powdery mass, often mixed with iron ore. These phosphates include accumulations of canary-yellow mithridatite and green bosphorite occurring in the form of thin veins. In the cracks and voids of the ore one can find thin coatings and nodules of bright blue earthy beta-kerchenite. In those parts of the ore that have been exposed to atmospheric oxygen for a long time, outgrowths of the mineral picite, similar to carpenter's glue, are found.

All these minerals containing phosphorus are additional to iron minerals of ore deposits. When steel is smelted from cast iron, the phosphorus contained in it passes into slag, which can be used as a fertilizer in agriculture.

Most of the concretions do not have cavities and are a dense grayish-green mass consisting of clayey siderite, around which manganese, phosphorus, and some other minerals are concentrated.

When raking loose ore, we may come across brown fossilized bones of some vertebrate animals - these are the remains of seals that once lived in the Cimmerian lagoons. The bone tissue of these residues is completely replaced by phosphorus compounds and is a mineral phosphorite.

Less common are white bones and remains of woody vegetation. Taking such a fossil in your hand, you will be surprised by its great weight. This is a mineral barite (barium sulfate), which completely replaced the tissue of organic residues. Such mineral formations are called metamorphoses.

There is little barite in the Kerch ores, and therefore it is of no practical importance here, but large deposits of this mineral are being developed to obtain barium, which is used in the chemical industry and medicine.

In loose ore mass, individual gypsum crystals of exceptionally regular cut are often found, and although this mineral is not rare, one should still take the opportunity to collect a collection of gypsum crystals here.

Finishing the collection of minerals in the Kerch ores, it must be said that we did not get acquainted with all the minerals contained in them. There are a number of minerals that can be found in the ore mass only under a microscope, and there are minerals and varieties of ores that are found in the deeper zones of the deposit; they can only be extracted by drilling or sinking rather deep mine workings.

The ores exposed in the coastal cliff were not always the same as we see them now. Prolonged exposure to external forces has largely changed the mineralogical composition and physical properties of ores; some minerals disappeared and new ones appeared. Such changes can sometimes occur in a very short time. For example, during exploration work carried out at the Kerch deposits, from the depths, where the ore layers are saturated with groundwater and where atmospheric oxygen did not penetrate, a very dense, greenish-brown color, the so-called "tobacco" ore, was extracted. Some varieties of this ore changed color in a few days and turned into a loose brown ore, like the one we saw in the coastal cliff.

So sometimes the change in the mineralogical composition of a stone that finds itself in new conditions, for example, in an environment rich in oxygen in the air and devoid of water, proceeds unusually quickly.

Having finished collecting minerals and ores in the coastal cliff, you should familiarize yourself with the mine, which is located 6 kilometers from the village (you can go by bus). We recommend, by agreement with the administration of the iron ore plant, to see the quarries where ore is mined, as well as factories where ore is enriched and agglomerated (from loose to lumpy by sintering at high temperature), in a word, to get an idea of ​​both the whole process of preparing natural mineral raw materials for smelting metal from it.

Kerch iron ores have been known for a very long time. In ancient times, the inhabitants of the Crimea already knew about the ores. We are told about this by Crimean archaeologists, who, during excavations near Planerny in the ancient burial grounds of Slavic tribes, found pieces of blue paint, which turned out to be the mineral beta-kerchenite from Kerch ores. These ancient burials date back to the 8th century AD.

The first descriptions of the Kerch ores belong to travelers XVIII century, but this information was fragmentary and did not give an idea of ​​the reserves and quality of ores.

For many years, Kerch ores did not find practical application. And only starting from 1894, various entrepreneurs, both Russian and foreign, tried to develop the Kerch deposits. However, due to extremely low technology and fierce competition, these capitalist enterprises often failed.

Only after the October Revolution, the metallurgical industry began to develop rapidly on the basis of Kerch ores.

The Kdmyshburunsky mine and the metallurgical plant named after A. Voikov. Every year the extraction of ores grew and the production of iron and steel increased.

During the Great Patriotic War, the Nazi invaders completely destroyed the mine and the factory, completely destroyed the workers' settlements; the city of Kerch suffered no less.

After the war, the mine and its village were completely restored in a short time. Now it is a whole city with many large houses, a stadium, a park, a club. The mine, concentrating and sintering plants use the latest machines. Ore mining is fully mechanized.

Iron ores are not the only chemical sedimentary formations in the Crimea. Even in our time, before our eyes there is an accumulation of chemical precipitation.

There are many salt lakes in Crimea, many of them of marine origin. These lakes in the recent geological past were the bays of the Black and Azov Seas, which, over time, separated from the sea by sandbars and spits washed up by sea waves, and turned into coastal lakes.

However, these lakes have not lost their connection with the sea. Through the narrow sandy spits, sea water seeps easily, replenishing the lake, the waters of which are continuously evaporating. Thus, the concentration of salts in the lake water gradually increases.

In hot summer, when the water evaporating from the lakes does not have time to be compensated by the sea water seeping through the spit, the concentration of salts in the lake water increases so much that crystals of these salts form. Salt crystals are the first to precipitate, covering the bottom of a shallow lake and its coast with a white crust. In some Crimean lakes, self-planted table salt has long been mined.

In addition to table salt (sodium chloride), the lakes also contain other salts: magnesium chloride, sodium sulfate (Glauber's salt), calcium sulfate (gypsum) and some other valuable salts.

The huge bay of the Sea of ​​Azov - East Sivash is especially rich in salts. It communicates with the sea with only one narrow strait in the Genichesk area and therefore resembles a large coastal lake, separated from the sea by a narrow slanting 120 kilometers long - the Arabat Spit.

The bottom silt of some lakes of the Crimea has valuable medicinal properties and is widely used by many sanatoriums and mud baths of the Crimea.

In Crimea, on Kerch Peninsula, there is a deposit of fossil salts, for example, a fairly significant deposit of gypsum near the village of Marfovka. A layer of gypsum up to 4-5 meters thick is being developed, the extracted gypsum is transported to Kerch, where alabaster is produced from it, which is widely used in construction work and medicine. However, the gypsum layer of this deposit is heavily contaminated with clay impurities and consists of small, tightly pressed crystals. It is quite difficult to find beautiful large transparent crystals, and therefore one will have to be content with samples of this mineral collected in ore deposits.

This can complete our brief acquaintance with the main sedimentary rocks of the Crimea, their most interesting minerals and the processes of destruction and creation that created this group of rocks, the most widespread in the Crimea.

In the section on the question Where do the stones come from?? given by the author Calculate the best answer is What a dumb question!! ! What stones?
1. If we are talking about natural stones, then everything depends on the type of stones. Some stones were formed from liquid lava, some were formed by pressing in the strata of geological deposits, such as granite or sandstone ... some are formed by crystallization.
2. If we are talking about stones that form in our body (in the kidneys, in the gallbladder ...), then this is a completely different story! These stones are formed by crystallization. A person who is prone to the formation of stones in bile or urine has high concentrations of various salts (urates, oxalates ...) and as soon as a crystallization center appears (it can be some kind of microbial body, or a piece of epithelium or some other grain of sand) as around salt immediately begins to settle. Most of growing grains of sand are washed out of the bile (urine) excretory tract, without having time to grow to a decent size. But some manage to get stuck in the bladder (bile or urinary) or in the renal ducts, pelvis, and grow. This is how stones in the kidneys and bile ducts are formed.
3. If your question is about stones in the garden, ask your neighbor. Chances are he gave them to you!
Source: About the time to scatter and collect stones, read in "Ecclesiastes"
Vladislav Yun
Guru
(4005)
Aha, that's what you're talking about!! Well, I can’t say anything but general phrases here. In my opinion, it goes like this:
1. Rocks are destroyed, with mudflows, blocks rush down into the valleys. In the valleys, under the influence of temperature, humidity, etc., the blocks are destroyed into smaller fragments. This is how stones appear in the near-mountain regions.
2. Decomposing further into smaller fragments, they turn into sand and clay, which are very easily transported by water even deeper into the lowlands, where they settle. The lower layers are pressed together, solid rocks are again formed, which, again, as a result of tectonic shifts, one day appear on the surface. Either all the waters of the rivers are carried to the surface by washing away !! And again the process is repeated. Again, the blocks break up into cobblestones, into pebbles, into sand ... all in a circle.
3. A person transports gravel and wakes up on the ground
4. Animals can tolerate
5. Rains wash out the soil, exposing previously applied stones. There are no more free characters!!

Urolithiasis always causes fear among the population. This is understandable, because if the calculus blocks the urinary tract, serious torment awaits the person.

Firstly, it is a terribly unbearable pain, and secondly, in difficult situations, an operation is necessarily prescribed. But that's not all, any delay threatens with serious consequences, even death. Where do kidney stones come from in humans? We will try to answer this question in our dedicated edition.

The presence of kidney stones in scientific medicine is called urolithiasis, there are also other names - these are urolithiasis and nephrolithiasis. Not everyone knows what stones are.

So, stones are hard, crystal-like formations formed due to large cluster salt in urine. They are different in their mass, size, shape. In some cases, these are the smallest stones that do not manifest themselves in the body.

A person for a long time, and sometimes for a lifetime, may not even be aware of their presence. But in some situations, these are stones that reach sizes up to 7 cm. The formation of stones can occur in various organs of the urinary system.

Attention. Stones with a diameter of 5 cm or more are considered dangerous to human life.

Calculi are formed against the background of impaired metabolism.

1. . The composition includes salts of uric acid.
2. . Contains calcium phosphate.
3. . Composed of oxalate lime.
4. Carbonates. Contains calcium carbonates.

Place of education:

• mucous epithelium;
• near a foreign body;
• in places of accumulation of opportunistic bacteria.

Place of localization:

• pelvis;
• cups;
• bladder;
• ureters.

The provoking factor for the formation of solid calculi is an infection that has got inside the MVS organs.

medical fact. In men, the formation of kidney stones is diagnosed many times more often than in women and children. The risk group is made up of people aged 25 to 50 years.

To understand the nature of the origin of stones, you need to familiarize yourself with the mechanism of their formation. Thus, solid substances called kidney stones are known to medicine as soluble salts.

Salts exist in the body in two forms:

1. Soluble.
2. Crystalline.

If the concentration of salts in soluble form is high enough, they begin to transform into solid crystals. This process is called precipitation.

Experiment. For clarity, you can conduct an experiment. If you take ordinary salt (sodium chloride) and dissolve it in sea water, and then put it in an open space and watch the liquid evaporate, then, in the end, we will see a crystalline precipitate. This is the salt itself. In the body, it collects in a homogeneous form and forms a stone.

Depending on the chemical composition, the stones are different in appearance. Some of them have a regular smooth shape, and some are angular with irregular edges and multiple pointed edges.

Function of inhibitors

Urine is made up of many different chemicals that, when grouped together, can form the same salt. But we note that the composition of urine includes elements such as inhibitors. It is they that inhibit enzymatic processes and interfere with the mechanism of salt precipitation.

Inhibitors enter our body and then into the urine along with food. These are, for example, citrates and magnesium. And some types of inhibitors are synthesized by our body as proteins. These are, for example, uropontin and nephrocalcin.

The main task of these elements:

• suppress the mechanism of salt crystallization;
• increase the solubility of salts;
• prevent adhesion (sticking) of salts to the epithelial layer of the kidneys.

The mechanism of stone formation begins with a significant outweighing of provocative factors over the function of inhibitors.

Risk factors

There are several factors that contribute to the formation of stones.

It:

• age;
• gender;
• geographic factor;
• heredity;
• Lifestyle;
• stressful situations.

Age and gender

Men suffer from urolithiasis more often than women and there is an explanation for this. First of all, these are eating habits, the stronger sex, as a rule, includes meat rich in protein in its diet.

Alcohol, which men also consume more often than women, contributes to the formation of urates. But, the most basic sign is the presence of androgen hormones in the male body.

Including the formation of calculi favor hormones such as:

• dehydroepiandrosterone;
• androstenedione;
• testosterone.

The risk of stone formation increases at age 40. According to medical observations, the growth of stones begins at the age of 40 and continues until the age of 70. As a rule, at this age, 11% of men have kidney stones.

Fact. As practice shows, in frequent cases stones are formed in the right kidney, and only in 15% of all cases the presence of stones in both kidneys is diagnosed.

Why are women at a lower risk of developing nephrolithiasis than men?

This is facilitated by the predominance of estrogen hormones in the female body. They inhibit the mechanism of oxalate stone formation, while maintaining an alkaline urine pH, and also increase the concentration of citrates, which inhibit the stone formation process.

In children, nephrolithiasis can develop due to deformation of the structure of the ureters and genetic factors.

The weight

Excess weight is a sign of malnutrition. Therefore, people who are overweight are at high risk of calculus formation.

It is believed that adipose tissue and insulin resistance contribute to this. The body of overweight people releases more uric acid and calcium, and this, as you know, is a direct path to the formation of stones.

genetic factor

It is believed that urolithiasis is inherited. If any of the parents has this pathology in the anamnesis, then the probability of its occurrence in the child increases. This is due to the insufficiency of the enzymatic mechanism.

Geographic factor

Each area has its own characteristics of the chemical composition of water and plant products. An increased concentration of minerals can both strengthen the body's defenses and lead to an increase in the salt content in the urine.

Lifestyle

A quality lifestyle is proper nutrition and the exclusion of all bad habits. Many foods contribute to the formation of stones, especially in individuals who are predisposed to this phenomenon. To reduce the likelihood of urolithiasis, animal protein and foods high in oxalates and salt should be avoided.

Alcohol and smoking reduce the protective function of the body, which exposes it to the risk of stone formation.

stressful situations

The constant presence of a person in a stressful state leads to numerous health problems, and this has already been scientifically proven. Such a pathology as nephrolithiasis is no exception.

The stress hormone (vasopressin) provokes changes in the functioning of the kidneys, reduces the amount of urine excreted, and as a result, its concentration increases, which greatly increases the likelihood of a crystalline precipitate.

Clinical manifestations

With the formation of urolithiasis, disturbances in the functioning of the paired organ occur, and, as a result, the inflammatory process of the ureters, bladder and urethra develops. If one solid element is present, and it is not moving, the patient will not feel acute attacks of pain. But as soon as it starts to move, intense pain is felt, sometimes so unbearable that the patient is ready to scream.

There are several characteristic signs that distinguish urolithiasis:

• sharp, sharp pain in the lumbar region (may be localized on one or both sides of the lower back);
• pain in the lower abdomen;
• hypertension;
• nausea, which may be accompanied by vomiting;
• aching, pulling pain in the kidney area, which radiates to the neighboring organs of the MVS;
• burning and cutting during emptying;
• increase in body temperature;
• frequent urge to mimic, sometimes there is a reverse reaction, too rare urge;
• bloating, colic;
• breakout of cold sweat.

Which in frequent cases accompanies urolithiasis, is the main and most unpleasant symptom. With such sensations, the patient cannot find a certain position to feel relief.

Colic is accompanied by sharp cramping pains. All this indicates that sand or stones come out with urine.

The duration of painful sensations can reach several days. Characteristic signs can occur in a patient once a year, and sometimes appear many times in a short period of time.

When the intensity of colic weakens, the patient may observe sand or stone in the urine. When the stones come out, the integrity of the inner layer of the wall of the ureters and urethra is destroyed, hence blood impurities appear in the urine.

The visual presence of blood in the urine is called gross hematuria. If blood particles are detected only by a laboratory method, then this phenomenon is called microhematuria.

medical fact. In 90% of all cases of urolithiasis, the patient can see the presence of blood in the urine with the naked eye.

Renal colic

Renal colic refers to the typical manifestations of urolithiasis, it is an attack of cutting-stabbing pain of great intensity in the lumbar region.

Painful sensations can radiate:

• in the groin;
• in the genitals;
• into the inner thigh.

The location of renal colic depends on the location of the calculus, the higher its location, the higher the pain will be felt.

Attention. Overlapping urinary tract calculus develops acute retention and stagnation of urine. This condition is life threatening.

Renal colic is accompanied by the following symptoms:

• nausea turning into vomiting;
• bloating;
• colic in the intestines associated with the inability to pass gases.

The patient is in a state of anxiety, constantly looking for a comfortable position, moaning.

Risk of relapse

As practice proves, urolithiasis is dangerous by reappearance.

Table number 1. Statistical indicators of recurrence of urolithiasis:

The reappearance of urolithiasis can contribute to various factors and reasons described above.

Attention. There are situations when a person has a kidney stone for many years, but he does not even suspect about it. However, when exposed to any of the negative factors, the disease begins to progress and make itself felt by the characteristic signs discussed above.

Reasons for the formation of stones

The most at risk of kidney stones are people living in dry and hot areas. As a result of dehydration of the body, the concentration of urine increases, which leads to crystalluria.

In addition, the causative factors are:

• insufficient fluid intake;
• unbalanced diet;
• features of drinking water (in some regions there is an increased hardness of water);
• deficiency or vice versa an excess of vitamin D and calcium in the body;
• uncontrolled reception medicines;
• associated urological pathologies;
• prolonged immobilization;
• limited physical activity;
• abuse of bad habits (alcohol, smoking, drug addiction);
• dysfunction of the parathyroid glands.

Important. In regions where there is high water hardness, it is very important for people to use cleaning methods.

Sufficient fluid intake by the body contributes to the thinning of blood and urine, along with which various toxic and harmful elements that form crystals in the urinary tract will be excreted.

There are certain statistics on the volume of urine output depending on the volume of fluid intake. The norm is the withdrawal of the same amount of urine that was consumed by a person per day.

Important. The optimal amount of liquid per day is from 1.5 to 3 liters.

Excessive consumption of alcoholic beverages and diuretics negatively affects the body. As you know, alcohol causes dehydration, which is typical for many medicines especially diuretics.

This phenomenon leads to an increase in the concentration of urine and the formation of stones. It is very important to follow the instructions of the attending physician, the instructions for taking medicines are developed by him taking into account individual characteristics and predisposition to stone formation.

Classification and chemical composition of stones

As we noted earlier, stones can form not only in the kidneys, but also in other parts and organs of the genitourinary system, for example, in the ureters and urea. In medicine, stones are distinguished by their chemical composition, size and location.

Classification of stones by chemical composition

The types of stones depend on the cause of their formation, the most common in medical practice are:

• carbonate;
• phosphate;
• urate;
• oxalate;
• protein;
• cholesterol;
• calcium oxalate.

Table number 2. Composition of stones formed in the urinary system.

Stone type	Composition
Common in medical practice
Phosphate	The composition of this type of stones includes salts of phosphate acid. They differ in roughness, have a light gray color. They crumble easily and are soft to the touch. Growth of stones occurs only in an alkaline environment. They occur in 8-10% of all recorded cases. Easily visible on X-ray.
Urate	Their formation occurs as a result of a large accumulation of uric acid salts. The composition includes: ammonium urates; sodium urates. To the touch, they are dense and hard, have a smooth surface of a yellowish-brick color. Almost indistinguishable on X-ray. They occur in 10-15% of all recorded cases.
Oxalate	They appear as a result of the precipitation of salts of the oxalic acid medium. These calculi do not have a smooth structure; on the contrary, they are always irregular in shape, rough to the touch, fairly dense, and dark in color. The occurrence of this type of stones is 75% of all recorded cases.
Calcium oxalate	The hardest of the entire group of "kidney" stones. Their crushing inside is almost impossible. Only surgery can remove stones. They are dense to the touch, with a prickly surface. They are dark brown in color. These stones easily injure the mucous membrane, which is manifested by the presence of blood impurities in the urine. In view of their special density, they are easy to recognize on an x-ray.
Rarely seen in practice
cystine	The appearance of this type of stones is facilitated by the combination of cystine amino acids.
Protein	The composition of this type of stones includes: fibrin; bacteria; salt. They have a smooth structure and a characteristic light shade. They are small in size, but, nevertheless, their consequences do not become less dangerous.
Cholesterol	Their formation is promoted by high cholesterol content. This type of stones is quite rare.
Carbonate	Formed due to the high content of calcium salts of carbonic acid. They have a different shape, if you try them to the touch, they will be soft and smooth in texture. In almost all cases, they are light in color.
Struvites	These are coral-like calculi, which include: magnesium; calcium carbonate; ammonium phosphate. Formation occurs as a result of the breakdown of urea by the enzyme urease. They quickly increase in size, have a yellow or white color. The danger of these stones lies in their branching, sometimes they completely fill the space of the kidney.
xanthine	The composition of the stones is the substance xanthine. The formation occurs as a result of a genetic defect, which leads to a lack of the enzyme xanthine oxidase. This type of calculus is not amenable to conservative therapy, they can only be removed surgically.

Attention. There are types of stones that have a mixed chemical composition. This category of stones is considered the most difficult, their treatment is quite long and difficult.

Classification of "kidney" stones by size

Stones formed in the kidneys differ in their structure and size.

Depending on the size of the stones, the following types are distinguished:

1. Microlites. Their size is not more than 1 cm.
2. Macroliths. The size of stones reaches 10 mm and more.
3. Coral. These are the most dangerous species, the size of which is more than 15 cm.

Conservative methods depend on the chemical composition and size of the stones. As for microliths, in this case there are methods that allow crushing stone-like formations at home.

For this, various recipes of traditional medicine are used. There are many plants that can break down solid formations in the kidneys.

If we talk about macrolites, then it is categorically not recommended to crush them with folk methods. In such situations, the patient needs the help of a qualified specialist. But this does not always mean that the patient is awaiting surgery. The doctor develops a conservative therapy tactic that allows you to convert stones into sand, and then use diuretics to remove it from the body.

As for coral-like stones, only categorical measures are applied here, that is, it is possible to remove stones only by surgery. In these situations, it is important to contact the clinic for help in a timely manner, because such sizes of formations are fatal.

When choosing a treatment method, not only the chemical composition and size of solid formations are taken into account, many factors affect the tactics of further drug therapy. Therefore, treatment is carried out in a hospital, following all the recommendations and prescriptions of a doctor.

Diagnostics

Nephrolithiasis can be suspected already by the first manifestations of the disease. But for the accuracy of diagnosis, appropriate measures are necessarily assigned.

Table number 3. Methods for diagnosing urolithiasis:

Method of instrumental diagnostics	Description
	The most widely used method to determine the presence of kidney stones. Calculi of a dense structure (oxalants, urates, phosphates) are easily determined by ultrasound, as they have a high degree of echogenicity.
	X-ray reveals stones with a hard texture. In the picture, they stand out as slight blackouts with clear edges. Mixed stone types will appear blurry or not visible at all on x-ray.
excretory urography.	This method of fluoroscopy with contrast is an additional method confirming the diagnosis of urolithiasis. Calculi of different chemical type in the picture will be identified as a defect shown by a contrast agent in the pelvicalyceal segment of the kidney.

While hard stones in the kidneys are easily identified by any type of diagnosis, the presence of soft stones can be determined by the accompanying symptoms.

In addition to diagnostic measures, additional studies are assigned to a patient with characteristic complaints:

1. Multislice CT. This method gives an idea of ​​the type and size of the formed stones.
2. Nephroscintigraphy. Allows you to determine the level of dysfunction of a paired organ.
3. Urinalysis for sensitivity to antibiotics. This analysis makes it possible to identify the presence of an inflammatory process in the urinary tract and determine its severity.

Before prescribing diagnostic measures, the doctor collects an anamnesis, interviews the patient, and first establishes the cause of stone formation. Based on the initial examination of the patient, drug therapy is developed, which, after receiving the results of the examination, is adjusted in order to ensure the effectiveness of further treatment.

Methods for determining the composition of stones

There are two methods for determining the composition of stones:

1. Straight.
2. Indirect.

In the first case, the composition of the stones is determined by the results of a urine test. If a high salt content prevails, this may mean that the kidneys contain salt stones.

If there is a high content of red blood cells, proteins, bacteria and white blood cells in the urine, this means the presence of protein calculi. With the formation of mixed types of stones in the urine, the concentration of salts and protein elements will be detected.

The second method for determining the chemical composition of stones is diet analysis. When a patient consumes a large amount of vegetables, dairy products and meat, while drinking a small amount of liquid, salt stones are formed.

And if you make a thorough analysis of the consumption of products, you can establish the exact composition of the solid elements:

1. Fans of meat dishes are prone to the formation of urates.
2. With a large consumption of vegetables, fruits, coffee and chocolate, oxalates are formed.
3. Consumption of dairy products contributes to the appearance of phosphates.

This pattern depends on the fact that all food, entering the body, is converted into a number of elements, among which such acids as uric, phosphoric and oxalic acids predominate. If there is an excess of these substances, the body's water-salt balance fails, which leads to the appearance of solid elements in the kidneys.

Treatment

Treatment of nephrolithiasis is done in two ways:

1. Conservative.
2. Surgical.

A conservative method of treatment is possible not only in a hospital, but also at home, however, if the formed stones do not pose a serious threat to health.

Conservative method of treatment

The method of crushing and exiting stones depends on many factors:

• anatomical structure of the genitourinary system;
• age;
• body weight;
• the size of solid formations;
• forms and structures of stones.

Conservative treatment includes:

• physiotherapy;
• traditional medicine recipes;
• adherence to an appropriate diet and diet;
• restoration of water-salt metabolism;
• physiotherapy exercises.

Together with the above methods, drug therapy is necessarily developed to help eliminate symptoms and alleviate the inflammation process.

As a drug therapy, the doctor prescribes to the patient:

• antibacterial drugs;
• diuretics;
• symptomatic;
• stone-removing drugs.

Attention. Treatment of urolithiasis must be carried out under the supervision of the attending physician. With the development of complications, a more effective scheme is being developed.

In the case when a conservative technique does not give positive results, the need for more global procedures is determined - these are operations. Modern medicine has reached the threshold when science has developed a lot of options for removing kidney stones, we will talk about them below.

Surgical methods

There are two types of surgery:

1. open operation. The patient is put to sleep and an autopsy is performed at the site of the kidney. The kidney, where calculi are present, is cut and a pebble or pebbles are removed mechanically.
2. endourethral technique. A puncture is made in the affected organ, where the endoscope is inserted. After reaching the goal, using ultrasound or a laser, the stones are destroyed.

Before any operation, the patient must undergo a course of preparatory therapy.

Table number 4. Surgical methods for removing kidney stones.

Type of transaction	Description of the event
Ureterorenoscopy	This method is used when crushing stones of small sizes. For this, a ureteroscope or nephroscope is used. By name, it is clear that the first is introduced into the urethra, and with the second method, the introduction occurs into the kidney itself.
Litholysis	Catheterization of the pelvis is performed. The method is divided into: descending; ascending. Ascending consists in a direct effect on the element using medicinal solutions. As a rule, this method is used after surgical interventions, in order to irrigate the pelvicalyceal segment with medicinal solutions. Descending litholysis is a conservative method of treatment, it consists in taking medications that help dissolve stones.
Lithotripsy	It is divided into two types: remote; laser. Remote consists in the local direction of different frequency waves to the location of the stone. It is crushed into small particles, turning the element into sand. Laser lithotripsy consists in the direct direction of the endoscope to the calculus. Under the influence of the laser, the crushing of the stone into sand begins.
Nephrolitholapaxia	This method is used to crush stones of 1.5 cm or more. An incision is made in a certain area, where the nephroscope is inserted. Pebbles are crushed with special microtools and taken out in parts.

With a large number of calculi or with their significant size, only an operation is indicated.

Diet for urolithiasis

As with any disease of the kidneys and other organs of the urinary system, the patient is shown a certain diet. In our case, the further growth of solid elements depends on the quality of nutrition.

So, if a patient has oxalates, products containing oxalic acid are categorically contraindicated for him.

It:

• tomatoes;
• sorrel;
• any berries;
• chicory;
• spinach;
• cocoa;
• cranberry;
• chocolate;
• citrus;
• fish.

If urates have been diagnosed, the following should be excluded from the diet:

• meat and meat products;
• fish;
• different types of cheeses.

With the formation of phosphates from the diet are excluded:

• vegetables;
• fruit;
• peanut;
• almond;
• milk and dairy products.

Traditional medicine

Traditional medicine is widely used in the treatment of urolithiasis. Folk recipes are effectively used in conjunction with drug therapy. In addition, there are many herbal medicines that help break up and remove stones from the kidneys.

Table number 5. The most effective and widely used folk recipes in the fight against nephrolithiasis.

Recipe Name	Method of preparation and use
	To prepare the recipe you need: 200 grams of olive oil; 200 grams of pure vodka; 200 grams of honey; 200 grams of lemon juice. Mix all the ingredients, transfer to a container with a tight lid. Leave in a dark place for 14 days. Take 1 tablespoon 1 time per day. The course of admission is 14 days.
	Chopped root weighing 35 grams, pour 1 cup of boiling water. Wrap the infusion with a warm towel and leave to infuse for 6 hours. After the means to strain. Take half a glass 4 times a day before meals. Course of therapy - 4 weeks.
A decoction on the crusts of watermelon.	It is very important to be sure of the quality of the watermelon, it is necessary to use only homemade fruit without the addition of nitrates. Dry the crusts first, then pour them with purified water and put on the stove. Boil the medicine over low heat for 60 minutes. Strain after cooling. Take 1 glass up to 5 times daily before meals.
	10 lemons need to be peeled and pitted. Pass through a meat grinder or blender. Add 2 tablespoons of medicinal glycerin to the resulting mixture and pour 2 liters of purified water. Leave for 30 minutes, then strain. Take in equal portions over 2 hours at intervals of 10 minutes. After taking the folk medicine, you need to lie down and apply a warm heating pad to the diseased kidney. The pain will increase, which means that sand or small stones begin to move in the direction of the exit.
	Dry the apple peels first. To prepare a decoction, pour 10-20 grams of raw materials with boiling water. Take instead of tea, if desired, you can add a little sugar or honey.
	To prepare a remedy, you need to take 2 tablespoons of celery seeds and the same amount of honey. Mix the components well. Take 2 times a day before meals.

Another effective medicine is an infusion of corn stigmas. They should be brewed like tea and taken 2-3 times a day before meals.

Important. All home remedies for nephrolithiasis should be discussed with your doctor. Many of them provoke sharp movements of stones, which can be life-threatening.

Summing up, it can be noted that it is easier to prevent the formation of kidney stones than to carry out complex and sometimes dangerous treatment. Proper nutrition, a healthy lifestyle and sufficient consumption of purified water reduce the risk of severe pathology, such as nephrolithiasis, tenfold. In the video presented in this article, experts will talk about the possible consequences of urolithiasis.