Erosion and denudation landscape

There are many groups of faults, vertical joints and fractures intersecting in different directions in conglomerate, glutenite, gravelly sandstone and sandstone of Hekou Formation and Tangbian Formation, which constitute Danxia landform. Under the long-term flowing water erosion (including downward erosion and lateral erosion) and the collapse caused by unbalanced supporting force and its own gravity, colorful Danxia landform landscape has been formed.

Shizhai

Shizhai is Fangshan landform, with a square or rectangular roof, flat roof and steep walls on four or three sides. It is a mountain composed of nearly horizontal red rock strata, which is formed by the interaction of erosion, collapse and inconspicuous top erosion and denudation around a relatively balanced area. Such as Ren Xian, Xianyan, YunJin Feng, Chenbaozhai, Xianglufeng, Xuejiazhai and Nijiazhai. Ren Xian Town is a giant stone village, standing on the west bank of Luxi River, with a height of 288 meters and a nearly round top, covering an area of about 0. 15 square kilometers. Steep and majestic all around, overlooking, facing the abyss below, embedded in the blue sky above. The south is facing the sky and the cliff is bottomless; The north is as steep as a razor and unattainable. Fairy Town is a "fairy cave house" valued by both Taoism and Buddhism. It is ethereal and has a profound cultural background. Built on it, there are Douli Palace, Xiangu Temple, Xianfengmen and Xianyumen. It is one of the most typical areas where the beautiful Danxia landform and religious culture are organically integrated. It is the first place in China to witness the Danxia Shizhai landform and appreciate the profound ancient Taoist culture and Buddhist culture.

Liang Shi stone wall

It is a long linear landform. The top of the mountain is narrow, the waves are gentle and the cliffs around it are steep. When the rock wall is steep and flat like a wall, it is called a stone wall, and when the mountains extend like roof beams, it is called the Liang Shi. Most of these mountains are regarded as peaks near the wall. They are a group of nearly parallel faults, joints or cracks in the primitive mountain composed of nearly horizontal red rocks, which are formed under the comprehensive action of long-term scouring and erosion of running water, gravity collapse, weathering and dissolution and other factors. Danxia Stone Wall and Liang Shi are widely distributed, such as Paiya Stone Wall, Elephant Trunk Mountain, Maji Mountain, Mawei Mountain, Coffin Mountain, Dan Xian Box, Shoucai Peak, Yutu Peak, Mao Chaofeng, Lion Peak, Giant Elephant Peak, Ren Weifeng and Camel Peak. The landscape is colorful, and Elephant Trunk Mountain is unique, like a giant elephant out of the forest. Guifeng Camel Peak belongs to the northeast of Liang Shi, with cliffs on both sides, about 1000 meters long, 25 meters wide and 362 meters above sea level. The vertical joints across Liang Shi make the top rise and fall like a hump, and the whole of Liang Shi is like a camel with a load to the east. It is magnificent, and under the sunshine and morning light, it is like a "boat in the desert", showing that it is really beautiful.

Camel Peak (Stone Wall) Jiang Yongbiao/photo

stone pillar

The stone pillar is a columnar, rod-shaped or pagoda-shaped peak of Danxia Mountain. Its height is much larger than the cross-sectional diameter, and it is surrounded by Ya Dan, which is isolated from the world. It is formed by the development of two groups of nearly orthogonal joints or cracks in the primitive mountain composed of nearly horizontal red rock strata, and the long-term and relatively balanced erosion and erosion of running water along the joints or cracks, supplemented by gravity collapse. Stone pillars are scattered in Xianshuiyan Scenic Area, Mazuyan Scenic Area and Guifeng Scenic Area, forming an extraordinary landscape such as Candle Peak, Golden Gun Peak, Dominating the World and Rib Peak.

Fung Shek

Steep around, sharp and round at the top and big at the bottom. Its formation mechanism is similar to that of stone pillars, but the difference is that the erosion speed of the top surface of the stone peak is higher, which makes the ratio of its height to the diameter of the section smaller, so it is more "plump" or "stout" than stone pillars. Danxia Stone Peak is widely distributed in various parks, such as Jinzhong Peak in Longhu Mountain, Jinzhong Peak in Guifeng, Nissen Peak, Jinlong Peak, Snail Peak and Giant Buddha Peak. Jinzhong Peak, which stands on the west coast of Luxi River, is more than 100 meters high. It is a round cylindrical cone, just like the Taoist bronze bell in the Shangqing Palace. Guifeng Jinzhong Peak is a cylindrical cone, with a cylindrical lower part and a conical top, surrounded by steep cliffs, and only one place is slow to climb. Jinzhong Peak looks like an ancient clock, hence its name. It is said that Jinzhong Peak also has the function of "weather forecast". Since ancient times, there has been a saying that "clouds cover the golden bell, there is wind and no rain", which is quite effective. This endows the Danxia stone peak with spirituality, which is a strange phenomenon of the coupling of Danxia landform and meteorology.

Danxia landform and tourism development in Longhu Mountain

Dominate the world (stone pillar) Jiang Yongbiao/photo

Tiannv Huasan (Cliff) Jiang Yongbiao/photo

overhanging cliff

Under the long-term erosion of water along cracks or joints, the original mountain composed of red rock series collapsed on a large scale along the erosion surface, forming a steep red cliff in Ya Dan. Danxia stone cliffs are widely distributed in the local area, almost all mountains have cliffs, and peaks meet cliffs. The types of stone cliffs are complete, some are as flat as an axe, some are uneven, some are straight and orderly, some are weird and strange, some are small and exquisite, and some are magnificent. Shuiyan Cliff, Xianyan Cliff, Paiya Cliff, Yunjinshi Chibi Cliff, Emei Cliff, Mazu Cliff, Guanyin Cliff and Tiannv Scattered Cliff are all typical representatives of Chibi Ya Dan. The Great Red Cliff is large in scale, with steep walls and smooth as a knife. Looking up at the clouds, the sun is shining. If it rains, the trickle will fly down, and the beads will splash jade, which is spectacular. With the shouts of people, the gold thread and silver chain that flutters rapidly is even more amazing.

Peaks and forests

Peak clusters and peak forests consist of dense stone peaks or columns. When several stone peaks remain interconnected, they are generally called peak clusters. When the basement connected between stone peaks is eroded and separated peaks are formed, it is called peak forest. When the crust rises, the red clastic rocks of Hekou Formation and Tangbian Formation rise above the erosion datum, and the flowing water erodes along the reticular faults, joints or fissures, but does not cut down to the erosion datum, generally forming a root-connected peak cluster; When the flowing water cuts down to the erosion datum, it is mainly eroded laterally, often forming a peak forest with broken roots. Peak cluster and peak forest are mainly distributed in Xianshuiyan Scenic Area, Guifeng Scenic Area and Emei Mountain Scenic Area, such as Paiyashi Peak Forest, Maozi Peak Cluster, Emei Mountain Peak Cluster, Longhushan Peak Cluster, Eighteen Arhats Peak Cluster and Guifeng Peak Forest, etc. They are typical Danxia peak cluster or peak forest landforms.

Guifeng LAM Raymond Jiang Yongbiao/photo

Canfeng Gushan

Canfeng and Guqiu are widely distributed in Longhushan-Guifeng area, which is a typical representative of Danxia landform in the old days.

Gully hills/photos on rivers and valley plains

Xiangu Poetry, Wen Haofeng (Guqiu) Guo/photo

cuesta

Extending along the strike of strata, the two slopes are asymmetrical, the slope along the dip of strata is long and gentle (the slope angle is generally 15 ~ 40), and the slope opposite to the dip of strata or nearly perpendicular to the stratum is steep and short. It is well developed in Guifeng Scenic Area. Zhanqi Peak, Fairy Peak and intoxicating peak are all one-sided mountains. Its gentle slope (back slope) tends to the northwest, with a slope angle of about 20 ~ 25, a length of about 300~500 meters and a flat surface. The steep slope (front slope) is short and steep, the slope angle is about 75, the length is less than 20~30 meters, and longitudinal grooves are developed on the wall. The formation of single-sided mountain in Guifeng Scenic Area is related to its special tectonic position. This area is located in the southern margin of Xinjiang basin, near the Beihai-Shaoxing fault zone on the edge of the basin, and the crustal uplift is obvious. The uplift height near the edge of the basin is large, which makes the original horizontal strata tilt greatly. The erosion and collapse surface formed along the fault on three sides is as steep as cutting, and the top surface is an inclined layer, which extends to the ground relatively slowly, forming a single-sided mountain with extremely asymmetric slope before and after. The special causes and peculiar shapes make the single-sided mountain have high ornamental and geoscience research value.

Guifeng Zhanqifeng (one-sided mountain) Li/photo

Zhubeishan

The northern part of Zhubei Mountain is almost entirely composed of hard rock strata, and the occurrence of rock strata is steep, and the dip angle is mostly 40 ~ 60. The back slope controlled by cracks or joints is close to the front slope caused by erosion in slope length and slope angle. There are scattered Zhubei Mountain in Emei Mountain Scenic Area, which is controlled by a large east-west fault consistent with the strike of rock strata, and the erosion on the south slope (front slope) and the north slope (back slope) is relatively balanced. Hard rocks have been washed away by running water for a long time, forming a rough and steep "pig back" landform, which is extremely rare and has high geoscience research value.

Zhu Beishan Li/photo

Zhanggu (at first sight)

A valley with steep wall slopes and a depth much greater than its width is called a valley. General valley depth >; 50m, valley width

Barrier valleys are widely distributed in the area, such as the first scene of Yuxianchi in Ren Xian, Guifeng Mountain, Guibang Mountain, Xianmou Stone Lane Valley, Renxiancheng Lane Valley, Shenxian Cave Lane Valley, Xianyan Lane Valley and Emei Peak Canyon, all of which are typical Danxia Barrier Valley.

The first line of Yuxianchi is located on the plank road, and it is thrilling to walk through it.

The first horizon in the south of Ren Xian is a huge U-shaped barrier valley, which separates Renxian City and Puffer Castle from each other, with a length of about 1000m, a width of about 50m, a depth of about 200m and a direction of 75. The cliffs on both sides are steep, straight and deep, and the sky and sky are shining, just like a sword splitting a huge mountain peak and forming a big stone crack. There are many holes, pits and caves on the cliff, which are quite spectacular, just like "the jade wall flies empty, and Pengcheng has a way to fight." No one looks down like a hole, and some guests look up like a hole. If you don't chisel Kuang Heng to stay at night, you won't smell the smoke from Sun Jing's cage. The light is divided into north and south, and you know there is another day in it. "Fairy rat stone is a line day, the valley is about 1 m wide, and only one person can walk sideways at the narrowest place. Cliffs stand on both sides, thousands of meters above sea level, the bottom of the valley gurgles, vines hang down, the sky is crisp, beads and rain are falling in the valley, and the mouth of the valley is covered with beautiful bamboo, which is wonderful.

Guo Fusheng/First Line Pool First Line Sky Photo

Water eroded cave

Due to the long-term erosion and erosion of running water, a large number of pits, caves and other micro-landforms have been formed on the rock wall of Danxia, which are called water erosion caves. There are three reasons: first, there are lithologic differences in the red rock layers that make up mountains or cliffs. On steep cliffs, weak rock layers are often eroded into caves by current first; Second, the cliff located on the concave bank of the river, under the strong lateral scouring of running water, both soft and hard rock layers can be washed away, forming water erosion caves; Thirdly, when the gravel contained in the rock layer on the rock wall falls off due to running water erosion, it can also form water erosion caves. Karst caves are widely distributed in various scenic spots, but Xianshuiyan Scenic Spot, Mazuyan Scenic Spot and Emei Peak Scenic Spot are the most developed. There are typical karst caves on the cliffs along the banks of Luxi River, especially on the cliffs on the concave banks of rivers. Many caves are being formed and developed, such as Daotangyan, Liyuzhou, Wenhaofeng and Shi Tian Chestnut Forest. Because water erosion caves are mainly formed by lateral scouring of running water, when the rock stratum is nearly horizontal, caves are mostly distributed along the river bed, showing a lenticular or oblate shape. There are typical caves in Ren Xian City, Puffer Castle, Mazuyan, Emei Mountain and Xuejiazhai, such as Daotangyan, Nielong Cave, Shaodan Cave, Tiangou Cave and Twenty-four Cave. Shaodan Cave is a water erosion cave near the water surface on the steep cliff in Jinzhong Peak, and it gradually becomes smaller from top to bottom. Like an inverted rice spoon, the lower part is like a spoon handle and the upper part is like a spoon body. It is one of the "Ten Wonders" of Xianshuiyan. According to legend, it is the alchemy spoon of Liu Gen, a green-haired fairy. It is formed by the erosion of soft rock (siltstone lens with high calcium content) on the cliff by water flow.

Shaodan Cave (Water Erosion Cave) Guo/photo

Danxia landform and tourism development in Longhu Mountain

Cao Yan

It is a trough-shaped cave densely distributed on the rock wall of Danxia. It is well developed on the rock walls such as Saltwater Rock, Xianrencheng, Mazu Rock and Xu Yan, distributed along the rock strata, and the parallel strata extend in a trough-belt shape. Due to the great difference in weathering and erosion resistance between soft and hard rock layers that constitute the Danxia rock wall, under the action of long-term flowing water erosion and dissolution weathering, soft rock layers or lens bodies (mainly argillaceous rocks, siltstone or silty sandstone) are more likely to be eroded and become diagenetic troughs. The grottoes of Xianyan Cliff Tomb can be roughly divided into three layers, and the lowest layer is 30 ~ 40m away from the ground or water surface. A single grotto is long, oblate or oval, and caves are distributed in a beaded shape along the rock stratum. There are many small caves between each floor, and sarcophagus are mostly placed in these caves. Majishan trough can be divided into eight layers, with the widest point of 2~3 meters, and the length of a single trough can reach tens of meters, and some even reach 100 meters. Rock troughs are layered and different in size, which is very spectacular.

Xianyan rock trough Guo/photo