Scientists Solve Mystery of How World's 'Stone Forests' Formed

[Judi Lynn]

September 8, 2020
MADELINE REYES



The Stone Forest of Shilin in southwestern China. (Image by einszweifrei from Pixabay)

(CN) — According to findings from a study released this week, scientists have confirmed that mysterious stone forests are formed by flowing water eroding the landscape, creating a unique rocky terrain with needle-sharp points.

The study was conducted by scientists from New York University, including Leif Ristroph, an associate professor at NYU’s Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, Michael Shelley, also a professor at the Courant Institute, Jinzi Mac Huang, an NYU doctoral student, and Joshua Tong, an NYU undergraduate.

Details are published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, where the researchers describe how they performed simulations to demonstrate how these fantasy-like structures may have been created.

Stone forests are vast landscapes of massive limestone rocks that almost look like giant petrified trees, giving the illusion of a forest of stone. They are incredibly striking in appearance and attract a steady flow of tourism, but their origins have long been a mystery to science.

More:
https://www.courthousenews.com/scientists-solve-mystery-of-how-worlds-stone-forests-formed/



Unbelievable photos of the Tsingy De Bemaraha National Park at this link in google images:

https://tinyurl.com/y2w64rx9

(Never saw them until a few minutes ago. Wonderful!)

[wendyb-NC]

1. How interesting.

Thank you, for posting this.

[Judi Lynn]

3. Thank you, wb-nc.

[wendyb-NC]

2. How interesting.

Thank you, for posting this.

[mr_lebowski]

4. Curious as to what the other options under consideration were?

Seems like water would be the obvious 'force' that would cause this. What else is even conceivable? Wind maybe?

Since this is sedimentary rock, I'm kinda more interested in the even-older history ... how was the rock formed and how did it come to be in the place that it's at, which allowed water to do this to it?

It looks like it was at one time a sea floor (that being what sedimentary rock almost always is) but it was moved and subsequently came to rest almost exactly perpendicular to the plane it formed in.

I suspect that this angle being almost exactly 90 degrees rotated played a big role in the formation of the 'forest'