Experimental studies on the Danxia landscape morphogenesis in Mt. Danxiashan, South China

The formation of Danxia landscapes is too slow to be observed in our life time and the paleoclimates in which Danxia landscapes developed are significantly different from the present. Thus, this study adopted experimental approaches to examine the lithological and paleoclimatic control on the format...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of geographical sciences 2015-08, Vol.25 (8), p.943-966
Main Authors: Zhu, Cheng, Wu, Li, Zhu, Tongxin, Hou, Rongfeng, Hu, Zhinong, Tan, Yan, Sun, Wei, Jia, Tianjiao, Peng, Hua
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Caves
Earth and Environmental Science
Freezing
Geographical Information Systems/Cartography
Geography
ICP-MS
Lithology
Mass spectrometry
Nature Conservation
Paleoclimate
Physical Geography
Quaternary
Remote Sensing/Photogrammetry
River flow
Rocks
Scientific imaging
Sulfuric acid
Thawing
Water analysis
X-ray fluorescence
X射线荧光光谱仪
中国南方
丹霞山
实验
岩石样品
景观形态
电感耦合等离子体质谱
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Summary:The formation of Danxia landscapes is too slow to be observed in our life time and the paleoclimates in which Danxia landscapes developed are significantly different from the present. Thus, this study adopted experimental approaches to examine the lithological and paleoclimatic control on the formation of various landscape morphologies in the Mt. Danxiashan, South China. A total of 122 rock samples were collected from a range of Danxia landscape morphologies such as white spots, small and large through caves, honeycomb caves, horizontal grooves, natural bridges, stone pillars, and squama stones. Analyses of the collected samples were conducted in different kinds of experiments, including uniaxial mechanical strength testing; rock resistance against sulfuric acid erosion, freezing, and thawing; X-ray fluorescence spectrometry（XRF） analysis; inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry（ICP-MS） analysis; and identification analysis under a polarizing microscope. The results indicated that the formation of the various Danxia landscape morphologies could result from one or more of the following processes： differential erosion due to lithological difference, chemical dissolution and recrystallization, freezing and thawing actions, acid corrosion, weathering, lateral erosion of river flows, and tectonic uplifts. Water erosion in humid monsoon climate and the alternations of intensive freezing and thawing actions in the Quaternary glacial stages and the interglacial stages could have had great influences on the formation of Danxia landscape topographies.
ISSN:1009-637X
1861-9568
DOI:10.1007/s11442-015-1212-9