Shui Jing Po Shilin, Rock and Relief of Stone Forests on Cone Hills, Yunnan, China

Abstract

Emerging gradually from the sediment and soil, the remarkable stone forests are a rich source of knowledge about the formation of karst surfaces. This is revealed by the details in the rock relief, subsoil rounded forms dominating the lower parts of the stone pillars, and sharp-edged rillen or fluting created by rainwater dominating the peaks. In between, all of the stages of gradual morphological transformation can be clearly seen. The shilin (Shilin County, Yunnan) pinnacles are developed on Permian limestones displaying a wide variety in lithology which, together with differing location (e.g., hillcrest v valley floor), creates their different characteristic shapes. The bedrock in the Shui Jing Po stone pillars is a micrite to microsparite limestone with (in some places) numerous recrystallised bioclasts, peloids, and intraclasts, that is very pure (high calcium carbonate content). The carbonate rock is uniform throughout the researched block of rock. Dolomitized areas, which are a very frequent and important characteristic of a majority of the neighboring stone forests, were not detected in the Shui Jing Po stone forest (Figs. 1.1, 1.2 and 1.3). Lithomorphogenesis, rock and relief of stone pillars, shows typical characteristics of quick development of stone forest from subsoil karren on the top of cones and ridges between them and slower on the slopes beneath.