Scientists studying the possibility of the existence of parallel forms of life on our planet have come to paradoxical conclusions. According to them, the most ordinary-looking cobblestones and boulders can be old and young, breathe in and out for several weeks, and even move independently.
It is possible that in the coming years scientists will be able to declare that stones also have their own consciousness. After all, stories about "walking stones" have long filled the pages of popular science publications around the world.
A truly amazing discovery during a scientific expedition was made by the researchers of Karelia, they found not just a “walking” or “wish-fulfilling” boulder, but ... a “singing” one. Head of the expedition, Vice-President of KRO "Raseya" Alexey Popov kindly shared with the National Geographic Society the materials of his discovery.
Karelia – a land of wonders
In the mass consciousness of an ordinary Russian, the Republic of Karelia every year gradually becomes what Lapland used to be for the inhabitants of Europe - a distant, semi-fairytale country, on whose territory any miracles are possible. Therefore, for the residents of Russia, this region is full of truly mystical charm. First of all, this is due to the uniqueness of the historical development of Karelia, associated with its "Hyperborean past".
As a legacy, the inhabitants of the republic received ancient Knowledge, encoded in numerous megalithic monuments, with which the Karelian land is literally filled. It should also be noted that very few serious, in-depth studies of Karelia have been carried out. The originality of Karelia also lies in the fact that, unlike most Russian regions, the sights of which today are well studied, described, numbered and cataloged, this region can still give researchers new discoveries and finds. And the most unexpected ones!
Thus, fragments of ancient traditions and legends about certain “idol stones”, placed by who knows who in such remote places where even local residents had difficulty finding their way, are still preserved in people’s memory. A large collection of these legends was once collected by the famous journalist of Karelian radio Nikolai Isaev, but, unfortunately, he is no longer among us. Among the legends he collected, one stood out: “somewhere in the Karelian wilderness there is a large boulder, as old as the earth itself.
And that boulder stands on a rock in the middle of the swamps. And our ancestors placed that boulder in such a way that day and night it “sings” only melodies that he understands, but a person with good thoughts and a bright heart will come to him, and the stone will help him and tell him what to do, and relieve pain and fatigue, and will give him protection from the beasts of the forest and the fears of the night.”
Legend or reality?
This legend was told to Nikolai Isaev by one of the old-timers of the small village of Ushkovo, which stood on the banks of the Karelian Okhta River. At first, Alexei Popov decided that this was just a beautiful fairy tale, especially since looking for a lonely boulder in the middle of endless swamps was, frankly, not a rewarding task. But, in the end, the researcher decided to try his luck and after a long search, the members of the expedition came to a small rocky hill, having climbed it, at the very top they saw a seid stone mounted on a kind of flat stone support.
Although it would be more accurate to say not “saw”, but rather “heard” - the stone really “sang”! True, it was, of course, not a human voice. A strong wind broke through the narrow gap between the flat top of the rock and the lower part of the stone thanks to the same stone support that the travelers saw as soon as they came closer. The feeling was unforgettable.
The sounds turned out to be very melodic; sometimes they resembled the marching polyphony of an orchestra, and sometimes they resembled the soulful melody of a pipe played by a lonely traveler somewhere high in the mountains. Everything depended on the strength of the wind and, most incredibly, on the position of the stone, which sometimes changed its position, swaying back and forth, left and right.
In other words, a flat stone stand was necessary not only to create a special “gap” between the top of the rock and the stone, due to which, in fact, sounds arose, but also acted as a kind of “hinge.” The stone seemed to be balanced on this stand, which was observed even with the naked eye. This also happened in moments of complete absence of wind, although Alexey Popov understood perfectly well that no wind could shake a monolith of such size.
When studying the stone, the researchers got a very definite impression of the “man-made” nature of this “composition.” Trees and bushes towered around the stone, and only in one direction was a natural passage open, not overgrown with trees, which allowed the wind to move freely.
The stone was oriented in this direction. Around the stone, members of the expedition saw a perfectly trampled area, although they did not find any fresh traces. Apparently, someone came to this stone since ancient times. But why? One could only guess what ritual and magical rites were performed here.
Moreover, despite the fact that each ritual boulder is unique, the “singing boulder” of Karelia has “relatives”. Back in 1972, an expedition of the Karelian Branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences, led by archaeologist A.P. Zhuravlev, a stone-boulder was found on Kolgostrov in Lake Onega, which also had the original property of emitting a melodic sound, but not from a blow of wind, but when hit by a small cobblestone on its upper part.
This boulder, by the way, is still known in local tradition as the “Ringing” stone. When scientists examined this stone, which is a natural boulder measuring 1.5 x 0.75 x 0.67 meters, they found that its upper part had clear traces of numerous impacts. And such an unusual acoustic effect is given to the stone by a crack on the top, forming a resonating cavity. Later, even specialists from the Petrozavodsk Conservatory became interested in the stone.
Having studied the melodic properties of the “Sounding” stone, the musicians hypothesized that it could well be used as a self-sounding lithophone instrument. Moreover, the “Sounding” stone in the local tradition still retains its cult purpose. It is believed that the sound made by the stone relieves a person’s pain and balances his mental and spiritual powers. And fragments of asbestos ceramics discovered in the cleft of the “Zvonky” stone suggest that it was used as a cult object in the late Eneolithic - late 3rd - early 2nd millennium BC. the ancient Sami population living in these parts.
Trying to understand the origin of worship of cult stones, including singing stones, among the local population, Alexey Popov found out that, due to their crystalline structure, boulders have the properties of a battery. If you heat a stone, heat accumulates in it: it stores it and then slowly releases it. But it can accumulate not only heat, but also natural magnetism and vibrations.
Northern peoples, including the ancient Sami and Koreli, had a strong belief that stones absorb energy from the environment and return it to those who worship them. The Sami beliefs still contain echoes of ancient knowledge about the vitality of stones. This tradition of venerating stones, regardless of the change in religious forms, is still alive today, especially in the Karelian outback.
The list does not include deposits and manifestations of block stone (quartzite, marble, decorative slate) and talc stone, which can also be used as an ornamental stone.
Kitelskoye field The garnet is located 10 km northwest of the city of Pitkäranta, in the northern frame of the Mursul and Koirinoi-Pitkäranta gneiss-granite domes and is confined to the garnet-bearing shales of the Pälkjärvi formation of the Lower Proterozoic, which form the core of the Kitelskaya syncline. Known since the beginning of the 18th century. Distribution of pomegranate in productive
From the book: A.E. Fersman. Precious and colored stones of Russia. Volume I. Petrograd, 1920
Red garnet is widely distributed in the mica schists of southern Finland and Karelia, where it has long been noticed. So, back in 1787, Alopeus wrote: "in ancient times they were dug and the peasants sold them to amateurs for a reasonable price: these are polished and worn in rings." We received more accurate information from Severgin, who describes, based on his observations in 1805, a cherry pomegranate 1.5 versts from the Kidel Church (to the left), 46 versts from Serdobol ( Sortavala):
"especially noteworthy are the Kidel garnets, called in the place of Kidel-Kiva, also the Kidel ruby, and located near the village of Kidel ( now the village of Kitelya) behind the Shuydamsky churchyard, at the northern end of Lake Ladoga. Whole mountains of talc slate are filled with it, and even on their surface, after removing the moss, you can see garnets sticking out like nail heads. The crystals are the size of an ordinary nut."
Academician Ozeretskovsky in his “Travel to Lakes Ladoga and Onega” says that small children collect them in the field when peasants plow the ground and pull them out with a plow, but their nest is in a soapstone, which starts from the village no more than a mile away . “In different places,” he says, small garnets sitting in stones are visible from the outside, and there is no difficulty in extracting them, because the stone is not strong and immediately cracks with a hammer. The outer garnets in the stone are mostly small and with cracks, but inside they can be found The fragments are deliberately large, solid, and have a pleasant light cherry color, which can be used for crafts.” In Serdobol, Ozeretskovsky saw a ring made from local garnet, in which the dark red color was so pure that the stone seemed almost transparent. Sobolevsky also wrote about the possibility of cutting this stone: “almandine comes in a pleasant bluish-crimson color and, due to its transparency, can take on a facet.”
Black melanite from some of the Pitkäranta mines could be used for black mourning items.
...................................................
The second deposit, which attracted attention at the end of the 18th century, is the famous Wolf - an island from the Kizhi Islands group on Lake Onega, where smoky quartz and amethyst were discovered through the searches of Armstrong, director of the Olonets factories, in the late eighties. They are of very varied tones, usually light or dirty purple, or brown, red and black tones, and their color is very heterogeneous, being partly due to the goethite needles cutting through them. These stones had great success in the last years of the reign of Catherine II, often cut in the shape of a cabochon or heart and called "fleches d'amour". Amethyst is confined to a strip of silicified brown iron ore, and was mainly mined from boulders plowed up by arable land; indigenous outcrops are still unknown and, therefore, now the deposit should temporarily be considered depleted.The mining chief of the Olonets factories, Fullon, presented samples of this stone to the Paris Academy of Sciences, and in his own collection, apparently, there were very beautiful ores.
A body with an area of 280x80 m was studied by mining to a depth of 5.3 m. The shales contain rhombic-dodecahedral, less often round, garnet crystals, ranging in size from 0.5 to 2.5 cm in an amount of up to 20%. In terms of composition, garnet belongs to the pyrope-almandine series with an insignificant content of spessartine component. The color of the garnet is dark crimson, cherry red with a faint lilac tint, the color is intense. The surface of the crystals is uneven, rough, due to the presence of shading and small potholes. Crystals measuring 1-1.5 cm contain standard monoblasts, some of the crystals measuring 0.5-0.7 cm are completely defect-free. Reserves of crystal raw materials up to a depth of 3 m are assessed according to category C, in the amount of 2.1 thousand tons, incl. jewelry garnet (cabochon) - 20.9 tons. Off-balance reserves of garnet (collectible gems) are estimated at 3.8 thousand tons, abrasives - 1.6 thousand tons. Technological tests of the Kitelsky garnet were carried out by the "Colored Stones" trust, according to the conclusion of which the garnet was recommended to the enterprises of Glavyuvelirprom for the manufacture of jewelry. Crystalline waste can be used to obtain garnet polishing materials without preliminary enrichment. The deposit is located in favorable mining and hydrogeological conditions for open pit mining / Saltykova, 1968f; Goldman, 1970f; Kuznetsova, 1981f/.
In 2-4 km from the deposit, in similar geological conditions, there are manifestations of garnet Ozernoe and Dam, which can serve as an additional source of crystal raw materials / Stepanov, 1984f; Artamonova, 1989f/.
It is possible to simultaneously extract large garnet crystals, which can be used in the jewelry industry, from garnet ores of deposits and occurrences in North Karelia - Terbeostrov, Spruce Navolok, Solokhina Luda, Kislyachikha and Udinskoye/Klimov, 1970f and others/.
Khitostrov corundum deposit located 8 km northwest of the village. Raspberry Varaka. Three productive bodies contain well-cut corundum crystals measuring 2-5 cm along the long axis. The color of the crystals ranges from pale pink to bright pink or cherry with a purple tint. In standard samples, 1-3 crystals are usually observed in an area of 40x50 mm. Corundum crystals have a long axis size of 2-5 cm. Corundum reserves in category C are estimated at 35.8 tons/Starikov, 1980f; Glazunov, 1985f/.
On Volkostrovsky manifestation, located in Lake Onega, on the island of Volkostrov, 16 km southeast of the village. Velikaya Guba, amethysts of pinkish-lilac, violet color develop in the form of druses and brushes in quartz veins and cracks among the formations of the Zaonezhsky Ludicovian Formation. Among the transparent amethyst crystals there are crystals pierced with thin needles of goethite / Artamonov, 1961f; Podkopaev, 197 Of/.
Freshwater pearl-bearing bivalves living in the rivers of the Republic of Karelia belong to the species Margaritana margaritifera. The extraction of northern pearls in the rivers of Karelia has been carried out since ancient times; it reached its greatest volumes in the 18th-19th centuries. Since the end of the 19th century, pearl fishing has declined sharply due to competition from cultured pearls. Since then, pearl mining in Karelia has been carried out only sporadically. Research conducted in the recent past indicates the presence of large colonies of pearl mussels in many water bodies of Karelia and the Kola Peninsula. In the Republic of Karelia, based on the results of exploration and experimental fishing, industrially promising areas in the deposits were identified Keret River And Syuskyuyanjoki/Golubev, 1974f; Guryanov, 1980f/.
Jewelry and semi-precious stones are sometimes companions of muscovite and feldspathic raw materials in pegmatite veins. At the field Pirtima in pegmatite veins Nos. 1 and 4, microcline amazonitization zones with a thickness of up to 4-9 m are developed. Amazonite reserves (green microcline) at the deposit were estimated at 657.0 t / Chuikina, 1971; Amozova, 197 Zf; Arutyunov, 1979f and others/.
At the field Mica Bor in 3 pegmatite veins, 30-60 m long, 6-20 m wide, 2-10 m thick, belomorite (moonstone) was found - an oligoclase of light gray and bluish colors with iridescence in blue and yellow tones with a mother-of-pearl tint. The belomorite of the Khetolambino deposit has the same high decorative properties, the reserves of which are calculated in two veins 60-120 m long, 8-10 m thick. In addition, belomorite is found in vein No. In the occurrence Plotnaya Lambina, in pegmatites, along with belomorite, there is polychrome tourmaline /Moskvina, 1951f; Stepanov, 1966f; Boguslavsky, 1974f;1982f; Amozova, 1983f; Afanasyeva, 1983f and others/.
In pegmatite veins of deposits Tedino, Blink Varaka, Nikonova Varaka, manifestations of Lisiy Bor-1, quartz vein manifestations Shueretsky section And Shuyostrov and silexites manifestations Piert Island rose quartz is found. At the field Tedino rose quartz was discovered in vein No. 37, 33 m long and 3.5 m thick. The central part of the vein is composed predominantly of white and pale pink quartz. At the field Blink Barracks rose quartz is installed in pegmatite vein No. 7, where the size of quartz blocks reaches 14x6x2 m. The quartz is white, gray, and in small rare areas it is pale pink. The predicted resources of rose quartz, estimated to a depth of 10 m, are 70 tons. At the occurrence of L Isii Bor-1 rose quartz was found in vein No. 1. The vein was quarried to a depth of 3-10 m. Of interest are the quartz dumps located at the northwestern end of the vein. Quartz is white, pale pink and pink. The approximate reserves of rose quartz in the dumps of vein No. 1 are estimated at 150 tons. Quartz from vein No. 1 takes a mirror polish, has high decorative qualities and is recommended for the manufacture of stone cutting and jewelry / Drobyshevskaya, 1954f; Abakumenko, 1968f; Rogovenko, 1968f; Okhotina, 1973f; Petukhov, 1995f and others/.
On Suisari Island in Kondopoga Bay of Lake Onega, located 23 km northeast of Petrozavodsk, chalcedony mineralization (Suisari occurrence) has been established on the northern, northeastern and southern coasts. Grayish chalcedony and quartzin form interspherical cavities in spherical lavas, cracks in breccias, and irregularly shaped segregations in breccia cement. The size of chalcedony segregations in breccias does not exceed 5 cm2, in the interspherical spaces - 10-20 cm of the true axis. Saturation of spherical When carrying out geological survey work in the central part of the Central Konzhozersky ultramafic massif, 12 km south of the village. In the Petrovsky Yam, bodies of confluent micro-fine-grained serpentinites-serpophytes were discovered in the form of thin (from tens of centimeters to a few meters) veins and zones (Konzhozersky occurrence). The bodies of serpophytes were exposed in a number of wells and ditches. The breed is light green, dark green, yellowish-green (in small veins - emerald green) in color, with a waxy sheen. In OME PGO "Sevzapgeologiya" from serpophyte was made 
trial batch of products with high decorative properties. The rock is well polished, suitable for making various ornaments / Yudin, 1991f; Bogachev, 1993f/.
All objects containing graphic pegmatite (written granite) are located in the Ladoga region. Field Kuivaniemi located 9 km northwest of the city of Pitkyaranta. It is confined to a pegmatite vein with a length of 220 m, an average width of 54 m and a thickness of up to 4 m, located among the amphibole shales of the Pitkyaranta formation, framed by the Mursul gneiss-granite dome. Graphic pegmatite is a yellow, cream, pink and white colored rock consisting of tabular microcline crystals intergrown with elongated quartz individuals. The contrast of quartz and microcline determines the high decorative value of the stone. The dimensions of the graphic pegmatite blocks are over 100x150x150 mm. If necessary, an additional source of graphic pegmatite can be the manifestations of Lapponiemi-1, Pyurejasari, Tyulenie and Hotari / Makarova, 1963f; Rundqvist, 1973f/.
The inventory of jewelry, jewelry-ornamental and ornamental stones takes into account three occurrences of colored quartzites, two occurrences of quartz porphyry, an occurrence of decorative slate, an occurrence of plagio-clase porphyrite and an occurrence of colored marble, which were not included in the inventory of deposits and occurrences of block stone due to the insignificance of the scale or increased rock fracturing. At the Prionezhsky occurrence, located 40 km southeast of Petrozavodsk, quartzites of pink and pinkish-crimson color, massive or banded texture, form a sheet-like body 150 m long and up to 2 m thick, confined to the Shokshinsky Vepsian formation. In the Segezhsky region, 20 km north of the city of Segezha, the Kamennoborsky occurrence of fuchsite quartzites was discovered, confined to a member of interbedding of quartzites and shales of the Zheleznovorotinskaya Sariolia Formation. The thickness of the interbedding unit is more than 8 m, the thickness of the fuchsite quartzite layers is a few tens of centimeters. Fuchsite quartzite is a monolithic rock of grass-green and emerald-green color, which has high decorative properties. 1.5 km northeast of the railway. Art. Padozero is a known occurrence of plagioclase porphyrite Nizhneye Padozero. Porphyrites form a dike-like body, cutting the sedimentary-volcanogenic formations of the Zaonezh and Suisar formations of Ludikovian. The length of the ridge with primary outcrops of porphyrites is 400 m, width up to 200 m, height 6-10 m. Porphyry allocations in the rock are represented by grayish-green plagioclase of a prismatic shape up to 2-3 cm in size along the long axis. The amount of porphyry deposits is 35-40% of the rock volume. The bulk of the dark gray color is represented by fine-grained diabase /Afanasyeva, 1983f; Yudin, 1985f and others/.
On Tetyuginsky lidite deposit, located 2 km south of the village. Tolvuya, 4 productive bodies were identified and contoured, representing fragments of a single flat-lying layer, which on the modern erosion section is dissected into blocks of irregular shape. 
The thickness of the formation within the field varies from 0.4-0.5 m to 4 m. Lydites are dense, opaque black rocks with a conchoidal fracture, banded, brecciated and globular texture. The content of quartz and chalcedony in lidites ranges from 88-97%, shungite substance - 3-7%. Graded lydite is used as an ornamental stone, the minimum block sizes of which must be at least 40x40x30 mm. Lydites are also used as a technical (touch stone), the requirements for which are much more stringent. At the Shung deposit of shungite rocks, lidites occur in the roof of shungite deposits, are distributed over an area of about 1000x400 m, and are traced to a depth of 100 m ( Shung manifestation of lidites). The thickness of the lidite layer reaches 4-6 m /Gorlov, 1967f; Afanasyeva, 1983f; Arkadyev, 1993f and others/.
On the southern shore of the Yalguba Bay of Lake Onega it is known Yalgubskoye manifestation of variolites. Among the spherical lavas of diabase porphyrites and amygdalite diabases of the Suisar Formation of Ludikovia, there are thin (up to 20 cm) interlayers of variolites with high decorative properties. Immersed in the dark gray cryptocrystalline mass of the rock are varioles 10-20 mm in size, composed of radiant aggregates of plagioclase or pyroxene /Ryleev, 1984f/.
Shungite is a unique stone, because nowhere in the world except in Karelia (and in Karelia itself, nowhere except in Zaonezhye) can you find it. Added to this intriguing characteristic is an equally curious detail - from a geological point of view, the not entirely clear, very ancient (2 billion years) origin of shungite. Myths have always been in the service of trade - where there is a lack of more or less reliable, scientific information about the subject; and now shungite is already called a substance of unearthly origin, brought to our planet as a result of its collision with the planet Phaeton... According to science, everything is much more prosaic: shungite is a metamorphic rock formed on the basis of organic bottom sediments (sapropel). Microorganisms of the Precambrian era (those 2 billion years old) accumulated on the bottom of the world's oceans for millions of years until they were buried deep underground by subsequent volcanic deposits and successfully metamorphosed into a rock called shungite, the main chemical element of which (up to 80% of the content) is carbon. Carbon molecules in shungite have a qualitatively different structure than similar molecules, for example, in graphite or diamond. We are talking about the so-called. fullerenes - spherical molecular compounds, which are credited with the main role in the active saturation of water with valuable carbon from shungite raw materials. Shungite filters for water purification are only a small, but scientifically based component of the modern “shungite” industry. Two other profitable components: products for lithotherapy (balls, pyramids) and souvenirs of Karelia (figurines, magnets).
By the way, the name shungite was given to the stone in 1877 by A.A., professor of geology at St. Petersburg University. Inostrantsev (1843-1919) - from the name of the village of Shunga, in which a real shungite vein was first discovered.
PHOTO 1. I collected these small shungite pellets on the shore of Lychny Island (Lake Sandal).
Another myth of the “shungite” industry is associated with the history of the use of stone by our ancestors: supposedly famous sights in Karelia are related to shungite - Tsaritsyn Klyuch (Medvezhyegorsky district) and Marcial Waters (Kondopoga district). The main character in the first case is Ksenia Ivanovna Romanova - the mother of the future Tsar Mikhail Romanov, who was exiled to Zaonezhie on the orders of Boris Godunov and was cured of bodily ailments thanks to the consumption of water from the well, which later became known as Tsaritsyn Spring. Even if this place really preserves the memory of the “Great Elder Martha,” until the beginning of the 21st century you will not find anywhere references to the fact that the said recovery occurred thanks to the shungite or any other stone contained in the earth. As for the Marcial waters, founded under Peter the Great, it is well known that the healing effect of local drinking procedures was initially associated with the “ferruginous” (“marcial”) nature of the local underground water. Shungite again has nothing to do with it.
PHOTO 2. Larger shungite stones. Also brought by me from one of my walks around Sandal Lake. 
Anyone who has been at least a little interested in this amazing land probably knows that Karelia is a land of thousands of lakes, rivers and forests. However, recreational resources are not all that Karelia is famous and rich in. There are values here of a different kind, perhaps more utilitarian, but no less interesting. We are talking about valuable Karelian minerals and rocks, of which more than 80 names are found on the territory of the Republic.
A bit of geology
The territory of Karelia, as well as the adjacent Murmansk region and the Scandinavian countries, is located on the Baltic crystalline shield - a fragment of an ancient geological platform that emerged on the surface of the Earth. There are only 20 such places on our planet, and each of them differs from the others in structure and time of formation. In addition, within each of these shields, geologists identify so-called “provinces” - parts of ancient continents or sutures from closed prehistoric oceans. For example, the Lahdenpokhsky district of Karelia, where our recreation center is located, is located within the Svecofennian province, the foundation of which was formed over 100 million years. And the total age of the rocks that make it up is close to 2 billion years.
What minerals and rocks are mined in Karelia?
There are so many of them that a complete review of this topic would have to write a book. Therefore, we will only talk about the most common and interesting stones. And let's start with a rock with the funny name gabrodiabase or gabbrodolerite. This stone is quite rare in the world and is mined on an industrial scale in only three countries: Australia, Ukraine and Russia, in the territory of the Republic of Karelia. By the way, it is Karelian gabrodiabase that is considered the best in terms of its characteristics; it is durable, resistant to high temperatures, and is used in mechanical engineering, for the production of road blocks, and in construction it is used as a plinth stone. Gabrodiabase also retains heat well, so it is often used for heaters. Granite is also mined in Karelia, and in three deposits at once: Andreevsky, Dymovsky and Kashina Gora. The color of Karelian granite varies from yellow to red, and its pattern, although quite simple, is quite attractive and harmonious. This rock is used mainly as a construction, facing and finishing material.
Another common rock that Karelia is rich in is marble. Although the deposits of this stone cannot be compared in volume, for example, with those in the Urals, it is Karelian marble that is faced with a huge number of famous buildings in St. Petersburg, including the Kazan and St. Isaac's Cathedrals, as well as the Marble Palace. 
By the way, the place where marble was mined for these purposes is located relatively close to our recreation center, on the territory of the Ruskeala mountain park. True, the quarry is now flooded and is better known as Marble Lake, but there is now much more entertainment for tourists there: you can sail a boat, swim, or even dive into the depths. 
Another interesting mineral mined in Karelia bears the proud name of “noble stone”. We are talking about crimson quartzite, which has long been used to decorate mausoleums, sarcophagi and tombs. Crimson quartzite was also used in the construction of Lenin’s mausoleum. In Karelia, crimson quartzite is mined near Lake Onega, in the village of the same name “Kvartsitny”. What other valuable minerals are mined in Karelia?
- Agate. It is one of the varieties of quartz. Has an opaque structure. Agate is characterized by a high variety of colors.
- Aventurine. It consists predominantly of quartzite with various inclusions of mica, ilmenite and other minerals. Aventurine is used mainly for making art objects.
- Azurite It has a bright blue hue, which is caused by copper impurities. Azurite is relatively rare. For a long time it was used to make paints.
- Amethyst. It is characterized by a peculiar color that makes it stand out from other minerals. Amethyst does not respond well to heat.
- Staurolite. An unusual mineral formed by combining aluminum and iron. Staurolites are distinguished by the fact that they form intergrowths of crystals that externally resemble a cross. This valuable material is present in large quantities on the Kola Peninsula.
- Amazonite. In Russia it is mined only on the Kola Peninsula. Amazonite is characterized by a green or bluish-green hue interspersed with white or yellow flowers. Used as additives in the manufacture of jewelry.
Shungite is a symbol of Karelia
But this rock is from a completely different “opera”. The famous shungite is a stone that is found only in Karelia and in no other place on Earth. It is not surprising that it has many interesting and beneficial properties for humans. So, in addition to the traditional construction industry, where shungite is used as a finishing material, this stone can be used for filtering and purifying water, as well as for non-traditional medicinal purposes.
There are no official scientific studies confirming the healing effects of shungite products, but this does not prevent enterprising people from making souvenirs, various kinds of talismans, amulets and even cosmetics with shungite crumbs from this stone. Well, the famous shungite pyramids are generally credited with almost universal properties: they will purify water, are suitable for massage, and protect from the harmful radiation of modern technology. 
At the same time, it cannot be said that assumptions about the medicinal properties of this mineral are not based on anything. The fact is that in 1985, researchers Robert Curl, Harold Kroto, Richard Smalley and Heath and O'Brien identified a unique molecular compound of carbon atoms, called fullerene, in honor of the architect Richard Fuller, who created his geodesic domes in the form of convex closed polyhedra . And this is what a fullerene molecule looks like. 
The applied significance of this discovery is quite large; for example, doped fullerene compounds have superconducting properties. At the same time, the implementation of such projects is still far away, since pure fullerenes are quite rare in nature. Interestingly, natural fullerenes were found precisely in samples of Karelian shungite, and after the laboratory synthesis of this molecular compound. From a medical point of view, it is important for us that fullerenes are powerful antioxidants, theoretically capable of prolonging life. At least in rats and flatworms, since this kind of research has not yet been carried out on humans. There are also sources claiming that fullerenes may be promising from the point of view of creating new antiallergic drugs, but no specific developments have been made yet. 
In any case, shungite products are one of the most common souvenirs in Karelia. In our opinion, you shouldn’t expect any miraculous healing effect from this mineral, but if using a shungite pyramid makes it easier for you to work near a computer, then why not? Mineral Museum at Owl Mountain
If the topic of Karelian minerals interests you, we recommend visiting the Mount Owl Museum, dedicated to this topic. Or rather, the museum was originally created as a military historical museum, which is largely due to its location - it is located inside a real military bunker built by the Finns during the Second World War. However, over time, the idea arose to supplement the exhibition with a collection of local minerals, and now the museum has created an entire geological hall for this purpose.
“Mount Owl” is located 21 km from the recreation center “Lumivaara” if you go towards Lakhdenpokhya, exit onto the Sortavala highway A-121, and turn towards Lake Paikjärvi. More information about “Owl Mountain” and how to get to it,
