On 18–19 July, Belokurikha hosted a field visit by scientists from Barnaul. A team comprising a geologist, a geomorphologist, and a geographer surveyed potential tourist sites. The specialists explored several routes in Belokurikha, including the Sibirsky Tract terrain path, Tatarsky Log, and the eastern part of the city. They also visited the Belokurikha Mountain tourist cluster and its surrounding area, as Katun 24 reported.

From a geological perspective, a geopark is not merely a scenic area but an “open book” of Earth’s history, in which every stone, rock layer, and fossil reveals a chapter of the planet’s past. Establishing a geopark in Altai Krai, encompassing Belokurikha and the Smolensk, Soloneshensky, and Altaysky districts, will integrate science with tourism and education while preserving unique geological heritage for future generations.

Alexander Dunets, Doctor of Geological Sciences, head of the research team developing the geopark, executive director of the Denisova Cave Public Foundation, and professor at Altai State University, stated:

“Our work to delineate the territory of the future geopark is primarily focused on identifying its key natural features, above all geological ones. We tend to think of Belokurikha as a place defined by granite outcrops, but in reality it conceals remarkable geological diversity. Literally in the eastern part of the city we discovered a unique contact zone: the Prokhodnaya Griva area, where old exploration workings from the 1950s and 1960s remain. Incidentally, there is a magnificent view of the Belokurikha mountain range from there; you can even see Mount Sinyukha. Our current research focuses on the so‑called Belokurikha fault. It is thanks to this fault that we have the famous nitrogen‑siliceous thermal mineral waters containing radon. All this work is being carried out within the municipality of Belokurikha. It is from this core that we will build the entire future geopark.”

Belokurikha is a unique place where, on one side, lies the endless, table‑flat West Siberian Plain. On the other, rise the majestic peaks of the Altai Mountains. This may appear to be a simple juxtaposition, but geology reveals an invisible struggle that has been unfolding for millions of years.

The epicentre of the mountain‑building process lies at the foot of a rock massif revered by locals as a place of power and marked by a monument to Buddha (within the Mountain Belokurikha territory).

“The picturesque rock outcrop you see before you is a fragment that makes it possible to visualize the structure of a large thrust‑fault zone separating the Altai Mountains from the West Siberian Plain. At the base of the slope, a narrow zone of increased fracturing—a tectonic suture (as such minor faults are sometimes called)—is visible as a strip along which different parts of the mountain range are shifting. The suture dips toward the mountain range; its thickness varies from two or three to twenty or thirty centimetres. The result of this displacement is also evident here: the upper part of the cliff protrudes slightly, forming a canopy. In time, under the force of its own weight, the canopy will collapse and settle as individual blocks at the foot of the cliff,” explains Sofia Platonova, Candidate of Geological and Mineralogical Sciences, an associate professor in the Department of Nature Management and Geoecology at Altai State University, and a senior researcher at the Laboratory of Landscape, Water and Ecological Research and Nature Management at the Institute of Water and Environmental Problems SB RAS (Barnaul).

Back in the 1960s, a fundamental phenomenon was established: the Altai Mountains are literally advancing on the plain. In the case of Belokurikha, the Altai block is moving westward, overriding the platform cover of Western Siberia.