Mount Tianzhu

Mount Tianzhu

Tianzhu Mountain in the west of Qianshan City, Anqing City, Anhui Province, also known as Qianshan, Wanshan, Wangong mountain (Anhui Province referred to as "Wan" from this), Wansui mountain, Wanshan, etc. It is a part of the eastern extension of the Dabie Mountains. It generally refers to the mountainous area with its main peak Tianzhu peak as the center in Qianshan City, sometimes also refers to its main peak. According to the aerial survey in 1980, the altitude of the main peak is 1488.4 meters, the planned reserve area is 333 square kilometers, and the scenic area area is 82.46 square kilometers. The geographical coordinates of the center (Tianzhu peak) are 116 ° 27'e and 30 ° 43'n. Tianzhu Mountain presents natural landscapes such as strange peaks, strange rocks, secluded caves and canyons. It is famous for its magnificence, strangeness, spirit and beauty. Geologists call it "the most beautiful granite landscape in the East"; writers describe it as "mountain jungle" and "stone Palace".

Because of its unique natural landscape, Tianzhu Mountain is one of the three famous mountains in Anhui Province (Huangshan Mountain, Jiuhua Mountain and Tianzhu Mountain). As early as Emperor Wu of Han Dynasty, it was named "Nanyue", and there were cultural activities in all dynasties. After the founding of the people's Republic of China, it has been developed into a scenic spot and won the title of AAAAA scenic spot in 2011. In September 2011, it was officially approved as a World Geopark by UNESCO.

Location context

Tianzhu Mountain is located in the west of Qianshan City, Anqing city. It is a part of the eastern extension of the Dabie Mountains. It generally refers to the mountainous area with its main peak Tianzhu peak as the center in Qianshan City, sometimes also refers to its main peak. According to the aerial survey in 1980, the altitude of the main peak is 1488.4m.

Geological characteristics

Mountain composition

Tianzhu Mountain is a part of the eastern extension of Dabie Mountains. The mountain is mainly composed of Wanshan (commonly known as Tianzhu Mountain) rock mass, which is located in the border area of Yuexi County and Qianshan City, Anhui Province. It is distributed in NNW direction and cuts gongjiejian anticline. It is sandwiched by Changpu Xiangchang fault and shuihouling chenlingtou fault. The exposed area of irregular batholith in surface layer is 120 square kilometers, and the contact zone with surrounding rock is mostly covered. The grain size of the rock surface near the contact zone becomes smaller, and the surrounding rock is silicified. The so-called "marginal migmatite" formed by feldspar metasomatism can be seen in the East, West and south sides of the rock mass along the contact zone, and its width varies from 10 meters to hundreds of meters. There is a small amount of fine-grained plagioclase hornblende gneiss residue in the rock mass, and baking phenomenon can be seen at the edge. In baimatan area to the west of the rock mass, the residual components of the surrounding rock can be seen. The feldspar porphyry and quartz syenite porphyry dikes are well developed, and they are mainly arranged in NE trending plagioclase. Secondly, diorite porphyry and fine vein can be seen.

The internal facies of the Wanshan pluton is composed of medium and fine grained mixed granite and mixed monzogranite, accounting for more than 90% of the total. The edge of the rock is fine-grained structure, often lack of sharp, generally several meters to tens of meters wide. It is wider on both sides of baimatan and sipaojian.

Mountain evolution

The historical process of the formation and evolution of Tianzhu Mountain can be traced back to the Archean period 2.6 billion years ago. At that time, Tianzhu Mountain area, like the whole Dabie Mountain area, was the period of oceanic eugeosyncline development in the late Archean. In the process of geosynclinal descent, the predecessor of Dabieshan group with thick flysch formation (early with ultrabasic and basic rocks, late with intermediate acid volcanic rocks) accumulated in this area.

The Dabie movement at the end of the late Archean period 2 billion years ago made the oceanic eugeosyncline in this area fold and uplift and formed the Dingyou ridge. Due to the regional metamorphism of geosynclinal sediments and the orogenic deformation caused by the intrusion of granitic magma, the Dabieshan group experienced moderate to deep regional metamorphism and the formation of migmatization and continental crust reformation type migmatite, forming an island like metamorphic terrane in this area, namely Huaiyang uplift including this area. The Wutai Luliang crustal movement (Dabie movement) formed a tight and linear compound fold. The Yanshanian movement, which took place 140 million years ago, generally developed ne, NNE and NS trending fault activities, which caused the fold to be disturbed and complicated. It has been in the process of uplift and weathering erosion for a long time. Up to the late Quaternary (Himalayan) which is 2 million years ago, that is, the early Pleistocene, the area rose sharply, reaching more than 1000 meters. The river erosion landform is formed in the rising area, especially in the rapidly rising mountainous area. Due to the long-term weathering and erosion, the magnificent and peculiar natural landscape of Tianzhu Mountain is formed today.

Geomorphological features

Zhongshan. It is located in the hinterland of Tianzhu Mountain. It is composed of mixed granite, divided by many canyons and in a dangerous cliff environment. They are more than 1000 meters above sea level and more than 600 meters above sea level. Tianzhu peak is the highest with an altitude of 1488.4 meters.

The horizontal, vertical and oblique joints of the mixed granite in Zhongshan are especially developed, and the group and density are variable. At the top and the mountainside, the temperature hovers around 0 ℃ for the longest time all the year round, and the water changes frequently in the liquid and solid state in the joints, resulting in the continuous fragmentation and disintegration of the rock mass, forming a variety of strange distribution of stone figures. The vertical joints of 105 ° to 285 ° and 155 ° to 335 ° are especially developed. With the strong cutting along the vertical joints by external force, the peak of Tianzhu is isolated and steep as a tower. Near the top of the mountain, it is dense vertically and carved by external forces to form a lotus peak in bud. Xiangufeng is formed by vertical joint cutting and spherical weathering. The gubangshi, which is in contrast with the xiangufeng, is an ingenious work developed along two sets of vertical joints of 85-265 ° and 175-355 ° respectively. The rock at the top is cut by horizontal joints, and the boulders are towering in three platforms, forming three peaks. Feilai peak is the top Boulder, which is cut inward from the edge by horizontal joints, making it look like a stone flying from the sky from afar and crown on the peak. The lifelike serpentine at the waist of xiangufeng is an excellent work for the development of two groups of vertical joints of 160 ° to 340 ° and spacing of 2-3m, 70 ° to 250 °. There are flying tiger, Tianshi, Linjiao, Wuzhi, Xianquan, pomegranate, Tianchi All the peaks are named after the stone image at the top of the peak.

To the southeast of Feilai peak and on both sides of Shiyin peak is a deep and narrow box shaped valley. The rocks on the top of the mountain are cut by joints. Under the action of strong physical weathering, stones and boulders of different sizes and shapes are formed. Under the action of gravity, they frequently collapse and fall into the valley, which forms the mysterious valley.

The southwest slope of Tianshi peak is located on the edge of Zhongshan Mountain. It has a large catchment area, strong water undercutting, continuous expansion of gullies formed along joints, and continuous reduction of ridge width. Then, along the ridge where the joints are concentrated, the flowing water cutting and double edge collapse take place, forming the arch like rainbow crossing cliff, which is the unique "magpie bridge" on Tianzhu Mountain. The cause of formation of "dinosaur's water drawing" is similar to "magpie bridge", but it is just vertical crossing cliff.

The cause of formation of "Tianzhu Qingxue" is directly related to the composition and landform of qingxueling. It is mainly composed of feldspar and mixed granite with relatively less quartz. Located in the center, the rock is wet, which is conducive to the action of water on the rock. In addition, the strong solar radiation and the large temperature difference between day and night make the rock surface crack layer by layer and gradually loose into sand layer. The slope at the top of qingxueling is not big, so the sand layer is not easy to slide down and accumulate into a mound.

Low mountains. The altitude ranges from 500 to 1000 meters, and the specific height ranges from 400 to 600 meters. The low mountain adjacent to the middle mountain is composed of migmatite. In the southern hejiafan and Wudang areas, the low mountains connected with hills are composed of monzonitic gneiss. The peaks of Shilong, Tianshu, Jiangdan and Tianwa are similar to those of Zhongshan in shape, with steep peak forest. Stone elephants are also distributed in this area. Zhutoushi, hunyuanpili, feiyanshi, Qilin stone, Muyushi, CHUANSHI, etc.

Yujing mountain and Jiawu mountain are meandering mountains, mainly composed of monzonitic gneiss and biotite plagioclase gneiss. Generally, the ridge is wide and the slope is less than 15 degrees. The hillside is not as steep as the low mountain mentioned above. Most of them are below 20 ° slope. The perfect stone is rare. The two kinds of low mountains are in sharp contrast.

Hills. It is mainly composed of monzonitic gneiss and biotite plagioclase gneiss. It is distributed in the edge of Tianzhu Mountain, such as yerenzhai and baishuiwan. It extends north-south and north-east. The cutting depth and density of the ground are weaker than those of the middle and low mountain areas. The terrain is gentle and the degree of overburden is not large.

Basin valley. It's also called basin. The basin Valley scattered in the whole Tianzhu Mountain is small in scale. The Longtan River Valley is an erosional structure, distributed intermittently along the Longtan River. The widest part is only about 500 meters, which is composed of gravel layer and sand layer. The basins in Zhongshan are roughly distributed at the heights of 400-500m, 800m and 900-1000m. Because of the obvious pause in the ascending process of Tianzhu Mountain for several times, the flowing water action changed from undercutting to side erosion. Especially in the areas where faults pass through or joints are dense, the riverside erosion is strong, thus forming Intermountain basins, such as Chazhuang basin (400-500m). Mazu'an basin (750-800m) and shexingtan basin (900-1000m).

Chinese PinYin : Tian Zhu Shan