Hongshilin National Geopark

The red stone forest is said to be a landscape formed after 500 million years of changes in the sea floor. A variety of vivid fossils can be seen everywhere. Red stone forest, stone cliff, stone wall, stone peak are distributed in the mountains, and tiandirenchi is hidden in them. There are not many tourists here, so the transportation is convenient. From Furong Town, you can get to Hongshilin directly by bus. It is not recommended to take too bumpy small tricycle.

Red Stone Forest National Geopark in Guzhang, Hunan

synonym

Hongshilin National Geopark generally refers to Hongshilin National Geopark in Guzhang, Hunan Province

Hunan Guzhang Red Stone Forest National Geopark is located in the northwest of Guzhang County, Xiangxi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture, Hunan Province, China. Its geographical coordinates are 109 ° 44 ′ 49 ″ - 110 ° 01 ′ 25 ″ e, 28 ° 38 ′ 16 ″ - 28 ° 46 ′ 08 ″ n, covering an area of 261.12 square kilometers and 53.08 square kilometers of main geological relics.

Nanguzhang Red Stone Forest National Geopark includes red stone forest scenic area, zuolongxia scenic area, Qifeng Lake Scenic Area and "golden nail" reserve, mainly red stone forest scenic area. The red stone forest in the park is a rare geological relic because of its unique topography and geological environment. The landscape of each development stage in the process of its formation is complete in the park, with good system integrity. It fully displays the morphological types and combinations of red stone forest, and retains complete development and evolution relics. It is called "Red Stone Forest Museum".

In 2005, Guzhang Hongshilin National Geopark was awarded the title of National Geopark by the Ministry of land and resources.

geographical environment

Location context

Hunan Guzhang Red Stone Forest National Geopark is located in the northwest of Guzhang County, Xiangxi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture, Hunan Province, China. The geographical coordinates of the park are 109 ° 44 ′ 49 ″～ 110 ° 01 ′ 25 ″ E and 28 ° 38 ′ 16 ″～ 28 ° 46 ′ 08 ″ n, covering an area of 261.12 square kilometers. The main geological relics area is 53.08 square kilometers, including three core geological relics protection areas: Hongshilin karst landform scenic spot, Zuolongxi Canyon Landform Scenic Spot and Qifeng Lake Youshui River Landform Scenic spot.

Topographical features

The park is located in the middle of Wuling mountains on the east side of Yunnan Guizhou Plateau, with an altitude of 200-1050 meters. The terrain is high in the East and low in the west, high in the South and low in the north.

Climatic characteristics

The Red Stone Forest National Geopark in Guzhang, Hunan Province, belongs to the mid subtropical mountain monsoon humid climate, with four distinct seasons, mild climate, obvious rainy season and long crop growth period. The annual average temperature is 16 ℃. The average number of high temperature days at 35 ℃ is about 15 days per year. The number of severe winter days with temperature lower than - 5 ℃ is 0.7 days per year.

Geological survey

geological background

The exposed strata in the area where the park is located are mainly Qingbaikou system, Sinian system, Cambrian system, Ordovician system and Silurian system. The carbonate rocks of Cambrian system and Ordovician shallow sea platform facies are the most widely distributed, and the purplish red argillaceous limestone and dolomitic limestone of Ordovician guniutan formation and Dawan formation are the tectonic rocks of honggulin. Because there are many iron and manganese materials in the goujing rock layer of Hongshilin, their oxidation is particularly red, which is the main reason for the red surface of Hongshilin; and the difference of oxide content in carbonate leads to the different red depth on the surface of Hongshilin, which makes the stone forest colorful. Therefore, lithology is the internal factor for the red stone forest to become red stone forest or color stone forest.

Geological structure

The park is located in the eastern margin of Wuji depression and the western side of Xuefeng uplift. The folds in this area mainly include zuokuba syncline, which controls the spatial distribution of Hongshilin. There are mainly NE trending regional faults, one is songshuping Zhangjiawan fault, the other is Luoyixi fault. The development of red stone forest is closely related to these joints and fissures. The density and number of Hongshilin scenic spots are restricted by structural joints, and the combination of centralization and sparsity in space. In Hualan and zuoganba areas where the conjugate joints are well developed, the distribution density of stone wall is relatively high. Because the water flow on the surface of the rock layer is easy to penetrate into the joint fissure, the rocks on both sides of the joint fissure are easy to be buried and weathered to form large dissolution ditches and troughs, such as yezhukeng and zuoganba.

The purplish red carbonate rocks in Hongshilin were deposited in the paleogeographic oxidation environment and developed horizontal bedding. Due to the difference of weathering and corrosion resistance and the development of horizontal and vertical joints, the difference of horizontal and vertical morphology of red stone forest is formed. The horizontal form forms various horizontal ripple marks, which are like pagodas and ancient castles, while the vertical form forms various corrosion grooves.

There are various forms of dissolution on the surface of carbonate rocks in the park, such as various dissolution ditches, dissolution plates, dissolution lines, dissolution pits, dissolution surfaces under soil, dissolution side troughs, well shaped dissolution troughs, dissolution shell lines, and sharp dissolution marks. Their forms are closely related to the development environment, structural conditions, hydrodynamic conditions, and rock composition. The surface of pure limestone is smooth and smooth with clear lines; Because of the complex composition of dolomite, the surface of dolomite is uneven due to different dissolution; the dissolution process under the soil is more uniform, with more dissolution residues, leaving sandy white shell on the surface; the change of water level leaves dissolution grooves; underground water flow leaves traces of various dissolution pipelines; the dissolution process of gas water soil rock interface is complex, with different dissolution rates, leaving half bell shaped dissolution marks, round dome shaped caves and lantern shaped caves The top erosion of the water rock interface of the underground pipeline is unique, leaving different scales of top erosion marks and corrosion fringes. In addition, the control effect of structural fractures is obvious, and in coordination with the water flow conditions, various scales of structural dissolution marks are formed, such as joint dissolution ditches, dissolution corridors, dissolution canyons, etc.

Geological relics

The red stone forest in the park is a rare geological relic because of its unique topography and geological environment. The landscape of each development stage in the process of its formation is complete and the system integrity is good. In the early Ordovician of 480 million years ago, it was a shallow sea environment where thin to medium thick nodular argillaceous limestone and limestone were formed. At the end of Middle Triassic of 220 million years ago, the main Anyuan orogeny in Indosinian uplifted the Hongshilin area into land, forming NE trending faults and folds, and two sets of NW and NE trending conjugate joints The red stone forest remains were formed under the weathering, denudation and dissolution of the rocks.

Resource overview

Animal resources

As of 2013, 279 species of wild vertebrates have been known in the park, including 1 species of white necked Pheasant under the first-class national protection, and 21 species of red bellied pheasant, tiger frog, snake carving and goshawk under the second-class national protection.

plant resources

As of 2013, there are 1283 species of 624 genera and 104 families of known plants in the park, including 26 species of national key protected wild plants, including Ginkgo biloba, Taxus chinensis var. mairei and calyx wood, and 23 species of national second-class protected plants such as Liriodendron chinense, Zelkova schneideriana and Lysimachia christinae.

Main scenic spots

The park includes four major scenic spots: Red Stone Forest scenic spot, sitting dragon Gorge Scenic Spot, Qifeng Lake scenic spot and "golden nail" protection area, mainly red stone forest scenic spot.

Red Stone Forest Scenic Spot

Red stone forest scenic area is composed of two landscape areas, Qietong and duanlong, with red stone forest as the main landscape and underground cave landscape as the auxiliary. The red stone forest is named after the tall, dense and forest like red stone pillars. In the area of about 30 square kilometers, a total of more than 1000 red stone columns are developed, with a height of more than 10-30 meters. Stone forest has various forms and shapes. Rich shape shows the beauty of red stone forest. Red stone forest shows the intrinsic aesthetic value of geology, known as "red stone forest, the world's unique.".

Sitting dragon Gorge Scenic Spot

Sitting dragon Gorge Scenic Spot is a scenic spot of Guzhang Red Stone Forest National Geopark, called sitting dragon Gorge Scenic Spot, which is characterized by its canyon landscape. The total length of the canyon is 6.5 km, the length of the core area is 3.5 km, the highest elevation of the canyon is 760 m, the lowest elevation is 320 m, the average depth of the canyon is 80 m, the deepest is about 100 m, the valley bottom is 4-10 m wide, and only one person can pass through the narrowest part. In the valley, there are typical thin-layer, middle-layer and thick layered limestone, rock stratum, horizontal bedding structure, fracture, joint and fold structure relic landscape. The landscape in the valley not only has high aesthetic value, but also has high popular science value.

Qifeng Lake Scenic Spot

Qifeng Lake scenic spot is located in Youshui basin in the north of Guzhang County. It is the largest artificial lake on Youshui river. It was approved as a provincial scenic spot by the provincial government in 1993. The land and water area is 53000 mu, including 20000 mu of water surface, and the average water depth in four seasons is more than 30 meters. The average elevation of the lake is 200-205 meters, which is caused by the impoundment of Fengtan Hydropower Station. There are 19 islands and 21 peninsulas along the way, which accept the confluence of 17 streams. Qifeng lake has a wide Outer Lake, a circuitous inner lake, rich levels, peculiar mountains, and ancient and magical national culture and historical sites. It is a tourist attraction

Chinese PinYin : Hong Shi Lin Guo Jia Di Zhi Gong Yuan