O ochronie starych kamieniołomów skał jurajskich na Wyżynie Wieluńskiej, czyli o konieczności współdziałania nauki, górnictwa i lokalnej administracji

Abandoned quarries in the Wieluń Upland at Działoszyn and Wieluń in central Poland are of unique value for the detailed stratigraphical, palaeontological, sedimentological and palaeogeographical studies of the Oxfordian and Kimmeridgian stages (especially the Upper Oxfordian and Lower Kimmeridgian substages) of the Jurassic System in Europe. It is because they yield the successions of deposits containing diverse assemblages of ammonites of a great significance for stratigraphical correlation, including that corresponding to the stratigraphical interval at the newly accepted global stratotype (GSSP) between the Oxfordian and the Kimmeridgian. Moreover, the quarries show the last Late Jurassic deposits placed towards the west in central Poland and preserved against the erosion, thus of high importance for the palaeogeographical reconstructions. The quarries offer also a special opportunity for educational purposes, and might become local geological attractions as they contain abundant fossils. Additionally, due to the fact that the Wieluń Upland, especially the environs of Działoszyn, has been one of the main areas of exploitation of limestones in Poland - the scientific value of the collected material and the history of the limestone mining could be presented in a specially prepared exhibition at the local museum, supported by geo-educational paths marked out in the abandoned quarries. Cooperation between the scientific community, local administration centers, and the owners of the quarries is of fundamental importance for the subject.