Qualitative Assessment of Geoheritage for Geotourism Promotion: a Case Study from Mehrangarh Ridge in Jodhpur City, Western Rajasthan, India.

Mehrangarh ridge (MGR) of Jodhpur, situated in north western part of India, is endowed with wide variety of Georesource of volcanic rocks of Malani Igneous Suite (MIS) of Cryogenian age and overlying Jodhpur Group (JG) of Ediacaran age belonging to Marwar Supergroup (MSG). MIS is the third largest, felsic, anorogenic, and terrestrial volcanic province of the world that witnessed Pan African orogeny related to the splitting of Rodinia Supercontinent. Unique and rare volcanic features of MIS at MGR have been declared as the National Geological Monuments of India with its interface with JG. The suite of fluvio-deltaic to coastal sediments of JG at MGR preserved text book style sedimentary structures with rich assemblage of oldest and complex Ediacaran fossils. MIS and JG altogether at MGR constitute the strato-type sections and outdoor geological museums in India that display geological processes of about 200 million years of Earth’s history. Such records of past tectonics, climates, and environments characterize the land-sea interaction and distribution in this part of Eastern Gondwana land that represent global geodiversity and provide eminent narratives for geo-education. However, these relict volcanic and sedimentary Georesources though formed site-specific landforms of MGR but have received less attention towards their geoheritage values. MGR is also endowed with many archaeological heritage monuments (HM) with additional cultural values that are constructed by indigenous Heritage Stone Resources (HSR) of JG. The HM represents old patronage of Jodhpur since medieval time that makes it a famous tourist destination of the world. In absence of geotourism applications and infrastructures in India, efforts are made under present study to provide suitable qualitative methodologies to identify geosites and assess geoheritage of educational and geotourism values taking MGR as a case study. Based on the proposed methodologies, we propose twelve geosites of geological, geomorphological, and archaeological types of geoheritage at MGR. These significant geosites of the Cryogenian—Ediacaran successions should be conserved as important geoheritage sites for geotourism through the proposed Geopark at MGR in Jodhpur. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]