laitimes

Lushan Waterfall hangs up

author:Institute of Geology and Geosciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Lushan Waterfall hangs up
Lushan Waterfall hangs up
Lushan Waterfall hangs up

Looking at the waterfall in front of the river, it really hangs.

In the past few days, it has been frighteningly cold all over the country, and the overwhelming snow and wind have not let go of anywhere, and the waterfall has been frozen in such cold that this day.

If you look at the Lushan Waterfall, it really responds to the scenery of "Hanging Front River".

Lushan Waterfall hangs up

From "flying down 3,000 feet" to "not knowing the true face of Lushan", since ancient times, countless literati and writers have fallen for Lushan, leaving a swan song for thousands of years.

The ultimate harmony between nature and humanity has made Lushan the first famous mountain in China to be selected as a "World Cultural Landscape Heritage".

The "true face" of Lushan is really hidden in ice and snow.

Lushan Waterfall hangs up

Peach blossom paradise in the world

Lushan, also known as Kuang Mountain, Kuang Lu, is not a very tall mountain, but it is also outside the five mountains, the only famous mountain that is crowned with the word "Yue".

Lushan is located on the south bank of the Yangtze River and the west bank of Poyang Lake, and its special geographical location of mountain, lake and river makes it the most brilliant pearl in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River.

Lushan Waterfall hangs up

Sunrise over Lushan. Photo\Visual China

The formation of such a mountain range can be traced back to about 200 million years ago, when the Lushan area produced an orogeny, which caused the ancient strata to rise repeatedly and produce folds, and finally became land, and the sea water was gone forever, and Lushan began to show its true face to the world.

Lushan Waterfall hangs up

Later, 40 million ~ 23.3 million years ago, with the strong Himalayan orogeny, the Lushan area began to rise relatively rapidly 23.3 million ~ 3.2 million years ago, and by the end of the Neogene it had become a huge high mountain, at least hundreds of meters higher than the current Lushan Mountain. And today's Lushan was born from this orogeny.

Lushan Waterfall hangs up

About 3 million years ago, the Quaternary glacial movement began. The earth began to shake violently, Lushan began to suffer from the impact of ice crystals and polished, the sleeping ancient glacier began to wake up, the appearance of Lushan began to undergo earth-shaking changes, in millions of years, Lushan completed the transformation and rebirth, so it has today's appearance.

Lushan Waterfall hangs up

Lushan has experienced about 2 billion years of geological evolution history, long and complex historical geological action, not only created a beautiful landscape, rivers and lakes, but also left a very rich, well-preserved, well-exposed geological relics landscape, so that Lushan has a ghostly geological cultural value.

In February 2004, Lushan was approved by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization as one of the first global geoparks.

Lushan Waterfall hangs up

Lushan Mountain, towering in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River plain, the height of the surrounding plains is generally less than 50 meters above sea level, while the main peak of Lushan is as high as 1473.8 meters, the huge altitude difference makes Lushan a local "ecological island".

The ecosystem not only represents the biogeographic characteristics of the Poyang Lake Plain, but also shows a relationship with the vegetation in the northern neighboring area to a certain extent.

Lushan Waterfall hangs up

Poyang lake. Photo\Visual China

In 817 AD, Bai Juyi wrote such a poem in the Dalin Temple of Yunyoulu, which not only recorded the date of the peach blossoms in Lushan at that time, but also showed the climatic characteristics here——

Lushan Waterfall hangs up

Lushan is located in the subtropical monsoon humid climate zone, is an isolated mountain that stands at the confluence of the Yangtze River and Poyang Lake, the highest peak of Dahanyang Peak is 1474m above sea level, the air temperature and ground temperature all change with the change of altitude, so it has the characteristics of mountain climate.

Many landforms such as tectonic landforms, flowing water landforms, glacial landforms, lakeshore landforms, karst landforms, etc., have brought magnificent natural landscapes to Lushan, forming steep slopes, rapids, waterfalls, glacial valleys, bays and beaches, karst caves and many other magnificent scenes.

And these are closely related to the "water" of Lushan.

Lushan Waterfall hangs up

Flying straight down, it is the true face of Lushan

The precipitation in Lushan is large, the average precipitation for many years is 1833.5mm, the annual evaporation is 1009.6mm, there is more water, and the surface runoff is not dry for a long time. Under the condition of abundant precipitation, the vegetation coverage rate is extremely high, which provides favorable conditions for water conservation, making the water resources of Lushan very abundant.

Lushan Waterfall hangs up

Lushan is a typical fault-block mountain with significant faults, which provides good hydrogeological conditions for surface water storage and discharge.

In the 292 square kilometers of the mountain, there are 40 perennial streams, of which 12 are larger. Because Lushan is a lonely mountain, the streams are arranged radioactively, and there are many waterfalls, and there are more than 20 famous waterfalls.

Lushan Waterfall hangs up

With the violent rise of the mountain and the rapid downward cutting of the river, the juvenile canyons characterized by "narrow gorges and deep valleys and hanging waterfalls" are caused by the upper source of these juvenile canyons are the broad valleys of the prime with a height of more than 900~1000 meters;

The stream spring on the top of the mountain, along the upstream wide valley rushes down, at the crack point where the upstream wide valley and the downstream canyon intersect, it quickly falls down, becomes a cascading waterfall, rapids, and the height of the crack point of the Lushan stream, most of them are about 900 meters in the middle of the mountain.

Lushan Waterfall hangs up

Therefore, in the place where the cracks are distributed, it seems to hang a line of white water (waterfalls) and strings of pearls (rapids). There are 22 waterfalls, which have become the most beautiful scenery of Lushan. They are like swimming dragons, intertwined in the mountain streams of Lushan Mountain, forming a huge water network.

Lushan Waterfall hangs up

Under the erosion and shaping of external factors such as flowing water, ice and snow, the valleys on and below the mountain are developed, and there are many streams, roughly located in the middle of Lushan, the Yangtianping with an altitude of 1374 meters is the water system dividing line, and the water system of Lushan is divided into two parts. The water north of Yangtianping flows down the mountain from the north, and the water south of Yangtianping flows down the mountain from the south.

In this regard, Xu Xiake, a great geographer of the Ming Dynasty on the mainland, wrote in his travelogue:

This ping is the highest in Lushan, the yin of Ping, the water is flowing north, from the Jiujiang River; its yang, the water is south, it belongs to Nankang (now Xingzi County). ”

Lushan Waterfall hangs up

Sandi Springs Waterfall. Photo\Visual China

According to incomplete statistics, the streams flowing north of the Jiujiang River into the Yangtze River are: Jinxiu Valley Flow, Scissors Gorge River, Shimen Stream Flow, Wangjiapo Valley Flow, East Valley Flow, West Valley Flow, Huanglongtan Water Flow, Lulin Water Flow, Qinglian Temple Water Flow, Da Ao Li Water Flow, Bailu Cave Water Flow, etc.

The water flow that flows into Poyang Lake in the south includes the water flow of Jiujiu River, the water flow of the Three Gorges Stream (Qixian Valley), the water flow of Xianglufeng Waterfall, the water flow of Lushan Mountain, the water flow of Peach Blossom Valley, etc.

Lushan Waterfall hangs up

Waterfalls, streams, lakes are intertwined with each other, one after another, the huge water network of Lushan is not only the most beautiful scenery, but also supports thousands of living beings, making Lushan become a natural kingdom where birds and beasts fly away and the greenery continues.

Habitats where birds and beasts fly away, waterfalls that flow down, and streams that trickle down...... The natural conditions of the creation of Zhong Shenxiu are the best proof of its "Kuanglu Qixiu A World".

Among them, the Quaternary glacial relics are the most controversial, and Lushan is far more mysterious than we imagined.

Lushan Waterfall hangs up

Quaternary glacial remains

What is a Quaternary glacier and is there a Quaternary glacier in Lushan?

Lushan Waterfall hangs up

Glaciers also need to have a relatively gentle slope. Photo/Visual China

Quaternary glaciers refer to the glaciers that disappeared 10,000 years ago during the Quaternary Pleistocene, so we can only analyze and infer the Quaternary glacial deposits, glacial movements, glacier landforms and other related scientific contents based on glacial relics.

On the basis of investigating the Quaternary glacial relics of the Alps, Li Siguang led the students of Peking University to Lushan for internship in 1931, and discovered the Quaternary glacial relics of Lushan for the first time, so he completed the world-famous book "Lushan in the Ice Age" in 1937.

Lushan Waterfall hangs up

Any major academic issue is developed in controversy, and the same is true of the Quaternary glacial relics of Lushan.

The Quaternary glaciers of Lushan have been debated all over the world for more than 70 years, which is rare in the academic circles, which can also be enough to explain the importance and complexity of the Quaternary glacial relics of Lushan. In the decades of controversy research, more evidence has gradually been obtained, and it has gradually been recognized by the majority of scholars.

Lushan Waterfall hangs up

Lushan Immortal Cave. Photo\Visual China

The Quaternary glacial period in Lushan has been divided into four subglacial periods, which has long become the standard for the comparison of Quaternary glaciations in China. Lushan is not only the birthplace of Quaternary glaciology in China, but also a typical representative area of oceanic foothill glaciers in the mid-latitude mountains of the world.

Lushan Waterfall hangs up

The reason why there has been many years of academic debate about the Quaternary glacial relics in Lushan is mainly due to the complexity of the glaciers.

Glaciers require extremely harsh conditions to form on the peaks, and only when the mountain height exceeds the snow line in the area does excess snow slowly accumulate every year, and then accumulate over a long geological period before a glacier can be formed.

Lushan Waterfall hangs up

Taking the mountains and rivers in the mainland as an analogy, the height of the snow line of the last Quaternary glacial period in Taibai Mountain in Shaanxi Province and Yushan Mountain in Taiwan Province in the east of the mainland is 3500~3700m, and such a high altitude can form Quaternary glaciers. Therefore, some scholars believe that the highest Lushan Mountain, which is only 1474 meters, cannot reach the height of forming a glacier.

Lushan Waterfall hangs up

Therefore, around the Quaternary glacial relics of Lushan, countless Chinese and foreign scholars have expressed different views. It was also in the midst of heated debates that more evidence of the existence of glaciers was discovered.

In 1992, the monograph "Quaternary Ice Age and Environment in Lushan" by researcher He Peiyuan and others was published, which systematically proved that there were indeed Quaternary glacial relics in Lushan.

Since then, the controversy over the Quaternary glacial relics of Lushan has basically been concluded, and the Quaternary glacial relics of Lushan have gradually been recognized by the academic community.

-END-

The reprinted content represents the author's views only

It does not represent the position of the Institute of Geology and Geosciences of the Chinese Academy of Sciences

If you need to reprint, please contact the original official account