The Goderdzi Petrified Forest Natural Monument ( ka, გოდერძის ნამარხი ტყე) is a

natural monument A natural monument is a natural or natural/cultural feature of outstanding or unique value because of its inherent rarity, representative of aesthetic qualities or cultural significance. Under World Commission on Protected Areas guidelines, na ...

in Georgia.

Status

This area is listed as a Natural Monument in the List of Protected Areas of Georgia. Together with the

Borjomi Strict Nature Reserve , iucn_category = Ia , photo = Borjomi Nature Reserve.jpg , photo_caption = Waterfall in Borjomi Nature Reserve , map = Georgia (country)#Samtskhe-Javakheti , relief = 1 , map_caption = , location = , nearest_city = Borjomi , coordinate ...

Borjomi-Kharagauli National Park The Borjomi-Kharagauli National Park (BKNP) ( ka, ბორჯომ-ხარაგაულის ეროვნული პარკი, ''borjom-kharagaulis erovnuli parki'') is a protected area in central Georgia, in Samtskhe-Javakheti sit ...

and Nedzvi Managed Reserve it is one of four protected areas under same management authority.

Geology and palaeontology

In the

Tertiary period Tertiary ( ) is a widely used but obsolete term for the geologic period from 66 million to 2.6 million years ago. The period began with the demise of the non- avian dinosaurs in the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, at the start ...

, volcanic eruptions and strong winds caused tropical forest to petrify.

Plant fossil Paleobotany, which is also spelled as palaeobotany, is the branch of botany dealing with the recovery and identification of plant remains from geological contexts, and their use for the biological reconstruction of past environments (paleogeogr ...

s from the

Late Pliocene Late may refer to: * LATE, an acronym which could stand for: ** Limbic-predominant age-related TDP-43 encephalopathy, a proposed form of dementia ** Local-authority trading enterprise, a New Zealand business law ** Local average treatment effe ...

forest — palm trees, magnolia, laurel, birch, hornbeam, beech - are preserved as prints of semi-fossilized leaves and stems in volcanic

tufa Tufa is a variety of limestone formed when carbonate minerals precipitate out of water in unheated rivers or lakes. Geothermally heated hot springs sometimes produce similar (but less porous) carbonate deposits, which are known as traverti ...

. Examples of the "Goderdzi Flora" are known from two localities, in the

Adigeni Adigeni ( ka, ადიგენი) is a small town ('' daba'') in eponymous municipality, Samtskhe-Javakheti, Georgia. It is located at the Akhaltsikhe structural basin, on the Kvabliani riverside, 32 km to the west of the regional cente ...

and in the

Khulo Khulo ( ka, ხულო ) is a townlet ('' daba'') in Adjara, an autonomous republic in southwest Georgia, 88 km east of the regional capital Batumi, in the upper valley of the Adjaristsqali River. The town and adjoining 78 villages form the ...

municipalities in the historical region of

Meskheti Meskheti ( ka, მესხეთი) or Samtskhe ( ka, სამცხე) ( Moschia in ancient sources), is a mountainous area in southwestern Georgia. History Ancient tribes known as the Mushki (or Moschi) and Mosiniks (or Mossynoeci) were t ...

. Petrified fossils are found in the valley of Dzindzistskali river, the right tributary of Kvabliani, on the eastern slope of Goderdzi Pass at an altitude of 1,600-2,100 m above sea level. This is one of the richest and well studied fossil floras.Ramishvili, I
Goderdzi fossil forest
''Georgia Encyclopedia'' vol. 2, Tbilisi 2012

References

Natural monuments of Georgia (country) Petrified forests Pliocene {{georgia-geo-stub