Kalniškiai Conglomerate Exposure
Exposures and conglomerates are an eye-catching ornament of nature and a source of knowledge.
The rocks of different colours and textures and layers of deposits uncovering the exposures should be looked for while swimming in a river and admiring the high scarps. At the Kauno Marios Regional Park, near Žiegždriai, a Kalniškiai Conglomerate Exposure of 8 m in height and 400 m in length is gaping.
The conglomerates of sand, gravel, and cobblestone cemented into the hard rock by nature, and the icicles, called the stalactites, stretching from them, are seen on the very top of the 8 meter slope. You won’t see such icicles anywhere else in Lithuania. When taking a closer look, the layered slope looks like a freshly cut pie. And the pieces of rock scattered on the shores of Kauno Marios, look like crumbles.
The name of the exposure located on the shore of Kauno Marios is associated with the Kalniškės village, which is now at the bottom of the Marios. Having built the Kruonis hydroelectric plant more than half a century ago and damming the Nemunas, water flooded tens of villages. The settlers had to leave their homes.
Now the Žiegždriai geological trail leads to a 400 meter long Kalniškiai conglomerate. There – hollows looking like amphitheatres of Romans and caves equivalent to the homes of the first people.
