Special: Mountains and rivers are wallpapers everywhere

All images in this article

By 40 photographers

Shot with HUAWEI Mate 60 series

It took 3 months to travel all over China

Presenting more than 30 extreme landforms

With this

A Tribute to the Unending Power of Planets

Have you ever noticed

The power of a planet ?

It is the movement of the earth's crust

Mountains rising

(Nangabawa and Kalabailei peaks in Nyingchi, Tibet, photographer @行影不离)

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It is the wind blowing across the desert

Stones and sand

(Badain Jaran Desert, photographer @张扬小强)

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It is a torrential rain

Thousands of ravines

(Water gullies in Zhangye, Gansu, photographer @张扬小强)

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It is glacial like iron

Digging valleys and splitting mountains

(Glaciers in the Nyainqentanglha Mountains in Tibet, photographer @笨小航)

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They move at a slow and steady pace

Traveling through millions of years

Make China

Changed the look

Next Steps

We will work with HUAWEI Mate 60 series

XMAGE Ultimate Imaging

Presenting this planet-scale

Epic of mountains and rivers

01

Power of the Earth

The most intense force on this planet

It is undoubtedly an erupting volcano

Hot magma

In Zhangzhou, Fujian

Solidified lava near an ancient volcano crater

Broken into black stone pillars

Like a stairway to the earth

(Near Zhangzhou, basalt solidified from lava breaks into hexagonal stone columns during the cooling and shrinking process. Photographer: @城市穿梭客)

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Sanqingshan in Jiangxi

The magma did not erupt to the surface

It solidified into hard granite underground.

Today, they rise high in the mountains.

Eroded into steep peaks

(Granite peaks of Sanqing Mountain, photographer @Running追光)

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These hot magmas come from deep within the earth.

And the same power comes from deep within the earth

It can also push hard rocks

Push, Collision, Break

For plate movement

Driven by plate movement

Deceptively solid rock formations

Being lifted and bent randomly is called "folds"

From the most microscopic

(The folds formed by the squeezing and bending of rocks, photographer @李珩)

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To a bigger place

(Wrinkles on the ground near Bogda Peak, photographer @笨小航)

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Rocks are violently destroyed by plate movement.

Bend, tilt

Even from horizontal to vertical

This is how the mountains are formed

(The wrinkled strata formed the Huoyan Mountain in Turpan, photographer @李雨森)

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at the same time

Plate movement splits the earth

Forming a huge fault

Even stretching for thousands of kilometers

Separates mountains from plains

Together with the folds, they shape the contours of the earth

(Fault on the northern slope of Tianshan Mountains, photographer @笨小航)

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It is the energy hidden under the earth.

At an imperceptible speed

Shaping the contours of the earth

The annual change is only micrometer to millimeter

But after a very long time

Causes the mountains to rise and fall

Changes of land and sea

(Rocks once deposited on the seabed in Wafangdian, Dalian, Liaoning, now rise up to form land and are about to be eroded away by the sea. Photographer: @宫小剑)

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But this is just the beginning of the planetary forces.

Beyond the thin crust

A thinner layer of material

It forms the outermost layer of the planet

atmosphere

Heat from the sun

Transformed into air flow

and water evaporation and circulation

The resulting storm

Will become a force that further changes the mountains and rivers

02

The power of wind and sand

wind

Ubiquitous

But the wind shapes most strongly

Reliance on bare, loose ground

This is in the arid region of the northwest.

Especially common

Here

Strong winds blew up white fine sand

Let the sand dunes spread to the towering mountains

(The Baisha Silver is derived from the Baisha Mountain on the Pamir Plateau. The picture shows the Baisha Mountain and the Baisha Lake at its foot. Photographer: @小强先森)

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and on a larger scale

Forming a vast desert

(Moonrise in the desert, photographer @刘忠文)

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The wind still blows across the dry lake basin

Loose lake sediments are being destroyed by strong winds

Forming the "Yadang landform"

Some are like fleets anchored on the vast sea

(Yadan landform, photographer @陈佳琪)

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Some are like strange towering fortresses

(Yadan Starry Sky, Photographer @薛飞)

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Where the wind is strongest

The wind took away all the fine sand

But it can't take away the heavy gravel

They form an endless wasteland called the Gobi Desert.

(Yardang Black is derived from Heidu Mountain. The picture shows the Heidu Mountain Gobi Desert, which is formed by the weathering of black rocks. Photographer: @陈佳祺)

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But anyway

How the wind shapes the earth

Are limited to the relatively loose surface

A new planetary force is needed.

To reshape the surface more dramatically

03

The Power of Flowing Water

Evaporated water vapor condenses into rain and snow

And then they gather into rivers, and flow into lakes and seas.

Eventually it evaporates again, and the cycle repeats itself

(Nannuo purple is derived from the famous ancient tea mountain Nannuo Mountain. The picture shows the sea of ​​clouds on Nannuo Mountain. Photographer: @查玮)

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In such a cycle

The shaping of flowing water never stops

Changes in the Earth Caused by Flowing Water

It starts with tiny grooves

They are the smallest streams of water.

The mark left

(Red Cliff of Dachaidan, Qinghai, photographer @陈佳琪)

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The power of flowing water gathers

Forming a rushing river

(River in Anjihai Grand Canyon, photographer @李雨森)

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The river keeps growing and growing

Converge, converge again

(Jinsha River flows through the mountains, photographer @李珩)

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until

A force strong enough to resist the earth

As the Himalayas continue to rise

Yarlung Zangbo River

Also violently cut the mountains

(Yarlung Zangbo River Shannan section of Tibet, photographer @李珩)

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Eventually, it cut through the planet

One of the fastest rising areas

Cut out the world's deepest and longest canyon

Yarlung Zangbo Grand Canyon

The confrontation of the two planetary forces

Perform to the extreme

(Yachuanqing takes its color from the Yarlung Zangbo River. The picture shows the Yarlung Zangbo Grand Canyon. Photographer: @龙世杰)

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However, the power of water

It's not always this violent.

It also has a more delicate, softer side.

15% of the world's land surface

Distributed with limestone, dolomite, etc.

Easy to chemical reaction

Rocks that dissolve in water

They are broken by the flowing water into unique

Karst landform

(Guilin landscape. It is a typical karst landform, also known as karst landform, photographer @Wzkdream)

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Here, the flowing water is violently dissolving the rocks.

Makes the surface extremely rugged

There are caves all over the ground

When the cave roof collapses

The natural bridges, cenotes and cracks in the ground are formed.

More unique than the scenery on the ground

(The roof of the Lotus Ancient Cave in Puding, Guizhou, has begun to collapse and is evolving into a tiankeng. Photographer: @王伟)

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In Southwest China

Such karst landforms are everywhere.

Hundreds of thousands of square kilometers

Three-dimensional mountains and rivers

However, going west

As the altitude increases, the climate becomes colder.

The power of flowing water no longer dominates

However, water will appear in a completely new form.

Its shaping is more magnificent

04

Glacial Power

Here

Water in the atmosphere

Transformed into crystal snowflakes and descended to the top of the mountain

And it does not change all year round

They accumulate, compact

Its thickness can reach more than 100 meters

Dense ice that recrystallizes under heavy pressure

It radiates a mysterious blue

Known as "blue ice"

(Blue ice at the end of the Meixi Glacier in Tibet, photographer @李珩)

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Such a thick ice

Driven by gravity

Slide down the hill at a slow speed

The glacier was born

(Glacier in the eastern section of Nyainqentanglha Mountain in Tibet, photographer @李珩)

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Snowfall, accumulation, sliding, melting

Glaciers are like endless conveyor belts

Crush the towering mountains

Then move the debris downwards

On the surface of the glacier

It is a strip of debris.

With elegant curves

Outlining the direction of glacier movement

(Yalong Glacier, Photographer @ South Carolina)

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Under the constant destruction of glaciers

The ridges between glaciers are getting narrower

Until it becomes a "spine" as narrow as a blade

The peak where the blades meet

Then the four walls stand like a knife

Known as the "horn peak"

(The peaks and ridges of the Three Sacred Mountains in Daocheng, photographer @南卡)

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that's all

The power of glaciers

Reshaping the tallest mountains on Earth

As the mountains rise

This shaping is still in full swing.

(Mount Nanga Bawa, photographer @龙世杰)

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05

end

On this planet we live on

The power of countless eternal planets

Created the most extreme earth and mountains

And will continue to evolve and reshape

(The salt lake in the Badain Jaran Desert in Inner Mongolia presents a variety of bright colors due to the distribution of special microorganisms. Photographer @张扬小强)

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From the desert wind to the rushing river

From the top of the glacier to the depths of the cave

Each time you press the capture button

A force is born

They are the power of wind

They are the power of water

They are the power of ice

Together they created

The most extreme Chinese landscape

It also created the beautiful home where we live.

A Tribute to the Unending Power of Planets

Salute to the surging mountains and rivers!

(Mount Everest, photographer @ZEK)

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This article was created by

Editor : Li Chuyang

Design : Yuan Jiaxin

Image : Long Shijie

Cover photographers : Li Heng, ZEK, Chen Jiaqi, Shanshui Yinshi, Fengzi

Head Photographer : ZEK

Planetary Research Institute

Focus on exploring the extreme world from a geographical perspective

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