To Get Down to Bed-rock

16.05.2018

Sometimes we look for miracles forgetting to mind our steps. While there, below, one can find such things, which can change our perception on the usual and monotonous world radically. Nurbolat Kurmangaliyev working as a geologist at Bogatyr Coal LLP can say a lot of interesting about it. His work and soul turn have found each other successfully and become the means for his self-realization and salary and hobby, on which he is sharing with others with pleasure.

It is difficult to imagine that once there was a sea, along with scenting plants and giant trees on the territory of the steppe Ekibastuz region. It sounds like a fantasy but in reality most likely this was the case as unquestionable scientific facts say.

- 360 million years ago Ekibastuz region was situated in the coastal area of the sea, - Nurbolat Kurmangaliyev says, - After the dereliction of the sea about 340 million years ago the process of forming black bogs started in the lacustrine bog conditions. On the territory of the deposit plants - real impenetrable jungle - began to grow heavily. The period of time received the name of the low carbon of the Carbonic period. The initial material for forming coals was higher plants - trees, ferns, etc. Bog vegetation with the supremacy of club-mosses was preserved, probably, during the whole period of formation of black bogs, which were transformed into brown coal under the influence of pressure and high temperature, and a result of metamorphization - into black coal. By rough calculations, about 5 kilometers of peat were needed to form coal of such capacity.

The set forth opinions prove multiple permineralized fossils found on the territory of the mines. In the course of their work the geologists of the enterprise find them in the big volume. Nurbolat Soltanovich has the whole collection of pictures of valuable findings. The rapt miner conveys the exhibits to the company museum and to the town regional museum.

A person, who has ever had fossils in their hands, would agree that these "hellos" from the past remind souvenirs. All of them have a fantastical view carrying a secret of universe. Of a special beauty there are imprints of plants petrified in stones forever, and ancient sea inhabitants - shells.

- In coal-bearing deposits we managed to find multiple shades of charred trunks of ancient trees - lipodendrons - with imprints of bark, shades and imprints of little trunks, cones of spore-forms, seeds of a pteridosperm looking like walnuts, and seeds of ferns.

The fact that here there was a sea and smaller reservoirs is proven by the findings characterized by marine fauna. They are fossils with imprints of shells and hard clams, shellfish, fish's scale and imprints of ganoids of a chondrostei subclass, to which sturgeon fish, such as a sturgeon, sterlet, etc., is referred, and also multiple macroscopic plant remains and miospores.

The geologist identifies found exemplars with the help of scientific literature and Internet with the participation of his colleagues in the Kazakhstani national geographic society called PavGeo, with which he cooperates closely. In addition to it, he takes part in archeological expeditions in Ekibastuz region in the composition of their group. By the way, in the adventurer's collection there are already several archeological things, which, as he likes to joke, "were borrowed from our predecessors". For example, the ancient pikes such as a pik and a nucleus - are a device, with the help of which primitive men were nipping off stone for arrows. Besides, Nurbolat Soltanovich collects interest period pieces. He has got the hobby right after his return from the trip to Vladimir, where literally at every step one can find antique shops.

The geologist-collector hopes his daughter will continue his profession. Unlike her two brothers, she has not determined yet what profession to choose but she is inclined to what her father does. It is quite possible she will learn to mind her steps and notice something unusual and wonderful and share her discoveries with men in the street enthusiastically.

Marina PONKRATOVA

Photo from the archives of Nurbolat Kurmangaliyev.