A "pyramid" appeared in Anlong, Guizhou? The special local landform created a wonder!

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Recently, several mountains resembling "pyramids" in Anlong County, Guizhou Province have become a hot topic on the Internet. These mountains are sparsely covered with vegetation, revealing their original appearance. They are perfectly conical and look like artificial buildings, similar to the "pyramid" structure in Egypt. Netizens are amazed. When did the "pyramids" appear in the mountains of Guizhou? Are they really man-made buildings or natural mountains?

Public data shows that in history, the Yongli court of the Southern Ming Dynasty once moved to Anlong. Some netizens speculated that these "pyramid"-shaped mountains might be ancient tombs. But could the Ming Dynasty's exiled monarchs have the national strength and time to build ancient tombs similar to those of the Egyptian pharaohs? This is almost impossible.

The two pyramids are located in Poyun Village, 3 kilometers outside the outskirts of Anlong County. A fire two years ago revealed the mysterious "pyramid" mountains hidden in the dense vegetation. The two "pyramids" are about 150 meters and 200 meters high. The entire mountain was formed by the ocean in the Triassic period more than 200 million years ago. The mud dolomite and mudstone are well preserved. The horizontal stratification of the original marine deposits is well preserved . The surrounding land viewed from a drone is a typical karst peak forest landform. There are actually many conical mountains that resemble "pyramids".

Professor Zhou Qiuwen of the School of Geography and Environmental Sciences (Karst Research Institute) of Guizhou Normal University said that the Anlong Pyramid Mountain was formed naturally, not artificially built or an ancient tomb site as netizens joked . This unique cone-shaped karst mountain was formed because the rocks in the karst landform area around Anlong County are soluble.

Why do the rocks on the "Anlong Pyramid" mountain show layered characteristics?

Zhou Qiuwen said: These mountains in Anlong County belong to karst landforms. The rocks that formed these mountains are dolomites dating back more than 200 million years ago (early to middle Triassic period). This kind of rock was formed in a marine environment, when most of Guizhou was under the sea. These dolomites were formed by the recrystallization of minerals dissolved in water in a marine environment. Due to the periodic changes in environmental factors such as climate and geological structure, the rock formation process was repeatedly interrupted and restarted, so the formed rocks showed obvious stratification characteristics.

Source: Video screenshot

Why are mountains cone-shaped?

Zhou Qiuwen said: The main reason for the cone-shaped mountain is that the area belongs to karst landform, and the rocks in the karst landform area are soluble. As a result of vertical dissolution of flowing water, the original large pieces of rock are cut into independent units. The continuous dissolution will cause the rock layer at the top to be dissolved in large quantities, while the dissolution of the bottom rock layer is relatively light, thus forming a pointed top with a wide bottom. Due to the factors of tectonic stress, this area has developed linear structures that are roughly horizontal and vertical in the plane. These tectonic stresses cause the original large pieces of layered rock to break, forming cracks of varying sizes. The simultaneous dissolution in the horizontal and vertical directions causes the mountain to form a pyramid-like shape .

Source: Video screenshot

Why do rocks exhibit blocky features resembling those of artificial masonry?

In addition to dissolving and forming some large mountains, the geological action in the karst landform area will also dissolve the layered rocks into small pieces, forming block rocks similar to those excavated by humans. The reason is that there are some small cracks in the rocks themselves, and the dissolution of the flowing water in these cracks is much slower, so these rocks are not completely dissolved, but the rock layers are divided to form block rocks . Karst landforms are widely distributed, accounting for about 12% of the land area. In China's southwestern regions such as Guizhou Province, Yunnan Province, and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region are one of the most typical areas for karst development. In addition to the famous natural bridges and Wanfenglin wonders, Anlong "Pyramid" Mountain is another excellent example of karst landforms.

The "pyramid" mountains in Anlong are undoubtedly a magical creation of nature. They are carved by simple geological processes, but they show a fascinating appearance, which has aroused endless imagination and speculation among netizens. This shows from another aspect that karst landforms have extremely high ornamental and tourism value.

Reference sources: Guangming Online, China Youth Online, Colorful Guizhou, Jimu News