Criteria | Sub criteria | Potential geoheritage | |
Economic value | Potential geosites | Landscapes; rivers; lakes; swimming pool; waterfall; canyon; valley; domes; mountains; caves | |
Geosites for hiking and trekking | |||
Gemstones | Sapphire, corundum | ||
fossils | Vertebrate invertebrate and plants | ||
Rocks | Eroded sandstone | ||
Museum | Center of Isalo interpretation | ||
Additional value | Aesthetic value | Landscapes | Eroded cliffs with strange shapes (Wolf, Queen…) |
Landscapes panoramic view: wide monoclinal, tabular mountains; deep and short canyons; sandy domes; natural labyrinth of Isalo | |||
Ecological value | Lakes | Natural and colorful lake (green) | |
Waterfall | Warm waterfall; waterfall bath; waterfall in the colorful water ( dark; turquoise) | ||
Swimming pool | Natural and colorful swimming pool (black and blue) | ||
Savanna | Endemic flora and fauna | ||
Forest | Evergreen forest, riparian forest; endemic flora and fauna | ||
Cultural value | Spiritual | Tombs: royal village; exorcism. | |
Folklore | People Bara and Sakalava | ||
Archeological | Portuguese Cave | ||
Educational and training value: protection and valorization of geoheritage | Regional | Awareness of local population | |
Professional | Training of Isalo Park staff on geoheritage | ||
Classroom | Teacher’s training | ||
University | Field work | ||
Scientific value | Geoscience | Geoprocesses of basin formation | |
Sedimentology: deposit process of sandstone; mechanism of transportation, erosion and diagenesis; silicoclastic sedimentary rock (sandstone, siltstone, conglomerate) | |||
Geological History | Isalo formation | ||
Stratigraphy | Karroo supergroup: stratotype; sequence type | ||
Geotectonic | Fault, diaclase | ||
Paleontology | Biostratigraphy; paleoecology (paleoclimate, energy) | ||
Geomorphological processes | Formation of deep Isalo sedimentary basin Fluvial processes Tectonic processes |