A curious chemical phenomenon makes the mountains rainbow a landscape that looks like a painting. They were formed at the same time as the Himalayas and are a true geological wonder.
They are in Zhangye Danxia Landform Geological Park in Gansu province, and are a tourist attraction frequented by many Chinese. In 2009, they became UNESCO World Heritage.
They are fantastic colorful mountains, striped and very vivid colors, and have been around for many millions of years. In fact, they are, like the Himalayas, product of collision of the Indian plate with the euro-Asian license plate About 55 million years ago, explains the. But its colorful base originates before that.
The plates that form these special mountains are composed of sandstone and silt. The color palette comes from the presence of minerals such as iron, but each track has a different composition, which gives it a certain color.
The primary color is a deep red sandstoneexplains the magazine. This color exists due to an iron oxide and cementation coating known as hematite (Fe2O3).
Already in yellow lanes, are rich in iron sulfide, while in the green predominate hydrite and iron silicates.
Vinicuncca: The 7 colors of Peru
If you think this is an unparalleled beauty in the world, we have other news: there is a similar mountain in Peru.
Yes – Vinicuca, also known for Mountain of Seven Colorsis in the Vilcanota mountain range, 5,200 meters above sea level. The treasure was only discovered by tourism in recent years: before, it received a few dozen visitors a day, and by 2018 this number had already passed to a thousand, reported.
This structure will have been formed in the periods tertiary or quaternary periods through marine sediments transported by water that once occupied the space.
These sediments were forming layers, which with the oxidation of different minerals acquired different colors, and today are “stripes“Even more organized than in the case of Chinese mountains. Your color palette is so alive that it also looks like an assembly – it is one of the most amazing natural monuments in the world, and a must for geochemistry fans: or just breathtaking landscapes.
