Hi Oliver,
Thanks for getting back in touch. You wrote:
>The useful bit was that the top of Mt
>Emei is Basalt. I still hope that there might be some karst on this
>mountain...
I agree that this is significant because the basalt occurs *above* the
older late Permian Moukou carbonate layer, which is of course
limestone. Granted the mere presence of limestone doesn't necessarily
mean there will be karst action, but at least you know that there is a
significant layer of carbonate material on the mountain, and the
Moukou is known for karst formations in other regions.
My hunch is that there is a thick limestone bed under the basalt cap,
and that there might well be some karst activity there. My questions
revolve around why, if there were a cave system under the mountain,
has it not been exploited by now, given the extent to which the rest
of the mountain has been developed: eg. the trail and steps to the
top, the tram service and cable car, food and souvenir/curio vendors
along the trail, etc. Those, along with what sounds to be a fairly
large city at the foot of the mountain, seem to speak more of the
absence of caves than otherwise, but who knows.
Here is what I was able to come up with regarding your last requests:
After two weeks, no word from the subscribers to Caver's Digest about
any caves, karst examples or exploration of Emeishan. There are close
to 200 subscribers to the digest, and none had any information to pass
along. They might be a good group for you to get a hold of, however,
if you wind up making the trek to China. Here is the website with
subscription info:
http://www.caversdigest.com/Default.htm
As far as high resolution images of the area, I was unable to find any
that were readily available on the internet. However, I called
Digital Globe, probably the most widely known supplier of digital
satellite imagery:
(800)496-1225, web address:
http://www.digitalglobe.com/indexNoFlash.shtml
I spoke with Adam, and he ran some numbers by me that were pretty
surprising. They can make a pass over any area of the Earth you want,
(it must be a minimum of 64 square miles), and they will return
imagery at 60 CM/Pixel...that's 60 centimeters per pixel, for $1300
US. Wow! Adam said that they can convert that to any scale you want,
but that's the base scale. I had thought that the cost would be much
higher, as well. I realize it's not all that inexpensive, but your
own private satellite pass over China would seem worth it to me.
I hope this supplies the information you are looking for. If I can
help you order imagery from Digital Globe, please don't hesitate to
contact me here. They don't have an international toll-free number,
and I'm inferring that you're in the UK. Just use the Request
Clarification button for that, or if I've missed anything.
(I had already written up an inclusive answer that contains a lot of
links that aren't mentioned in our correspondence above, so I've
appended it below.)
--Kutsavi
SEARCH TERMS
Emei shan geology
Karst geology emei shan
Karst geology china
Limestone geology china
Limestone geology emei shan
Limestone geology sichuan
Geology emieshan
Limestone emieshan
Karst emieshan
Karst geology Sichuan
Geology Sichuan
Aerial photography china
Satellite imagery china
Remote imagery china
cave geology emeishan
caves emeishan
cave emei shan
_______________________________________________________
It looks as though if you need general geology reports on the Emei
Shan region, you will be reading through a lot of information on flood
basalts that occurred in the area at the Permian / Triassic juncture.
Because of the significance of volcanism to the mass extinction of
species on Earth at that time, there are quite a few related reports
available online, and I've included most of them below. Information
on karst geology for that region specifically is a little hard to
come by in online sources. However, I found a source for very good,
if slightly expensive geologic maps and reports on the region which
should show good detail and provide you with all the information
you're looking for. Also, I made a concentrated effort to find
satellite imagery of the area but had almost no luck. The US
Geologic Survey's web site, ( http://www.usgs.gov ), is not
functioning today, and this probably posed more problems than I'm
aware of. Aerial photographs were not found. I found some satellite
information at the following site, but nothing specific to Emei Shan:
US Dept. Agriculture Foreign Agricultural Service
http://www.fas.usda.gov/pecad/remote/china/chimagery.html
_________________________________________
Geologic maps and information on karst/carbonate geology of China:
http://www.omnimap.com/catalog/int/china1.htm#p1
(There are several other maps on the geology of China available at
this site, but they didn't sound as though they would address your
needs.)
China--Karst Environment Geological Map of China. 1:5,000,000.
Geological Publishing House, Beijing, 1997. One sheet, folded, with
43-page descriptive text booklet. Completely in English.
$95.00
China--Map of Soluble Rock Types in China. 1:4,000,000. 1985. CPH. The
map shows the location, age, structure, and gross composition of
carbonate units in China. The map and legend are bilingual; the
50-page text is in Chinese. An English translation of the text
accompanies the map. 160 x 112 cm.
Set, folded $39.95
China--Underground Worlds. Guizhou People's Publ. House. 1987? This
atlas is clearly aimed at the tourist market. There are 127 pages of
full-color photographs showing a wide variety of features of Chinese
caves. The high quality printing includes high-gloss paper and a
decent binding. We recommend this book highly. In English, softcover.
Atlas $32.95
The National Physical Atlas of China.
China Cartographic Publishing House, 1999. 1st edition, 1st printing.
Compiled and edited by the Institute of Geography, Chinese Academy of
Sciences. This is an excellent summary atlas of China, made even more
attractive by its being in English. The following themes are covered:
Geology/Geophysics, Geomorphology, climate, Hydrology, Soils, Biology,
Oceans, Natural Resources, Natural Disasters, and Natural Utilization
and Conservation. Hardbound, 230 pp., 20" x 14". ISBN 7-5031-2040-1.
In English.
$400.00
China--Geologic Map. 1:4,000,000. 1991. Geological Publishing House.
This English-language map is an excellent summary map.
Set, folded $100.00
China--Geologic Atlas of China - An Application of the Tectonic Facies
Concept to the Geology of China. K.J. Hsu, 1999. This atlas contains
25 foldout plates; 23 plates on geology and 2 general plates
(political map and geologic map). Nearly 260 pages of text describe
the theory behind the geologic plates. Size is 22 x 30 cm, cloth
hardbound.
China Geologic Atlas. $249.95
I searched on < http://www.abebooks.com >, (Advanced Book Exchange; a
site connecting used book sellers from across the country), and <
http://www.bestwebbuys.com >, but was unable to find any of these
titles for less than the prices quoted above.
I also tried looking through the online map library at Humboldt State
University in California, knowing that HSU has a large Geology
department, but could find none of these specific titles. If you have
a university nearby, however, this might be another avenue to use in
finding the titles.
_________________________________________
Here are a few reports that deal with the flood basalts of the Emei
Shan province:
_________________________________________
Nice 10 page report on geology of Emei Shan:
Age of the Emeishan Flood Magmatism and Relations to Permian Triassic
Boundary Events
http://argonlab.gl.ntu.edu.tw/papers/Lo-Emeishan.pdf
_________________________________________
Here is an overview in MS Word format:
40Ar/39Ar geochronological constraints on the age and evolution of the
Permo-Triassic Emeishan Volcanic Province, Southwest China
http://ftp.cc.kuleuven.ac.be/pub/hertogen/em_ver2_cor.doc
_________________________________________
Lots of information on Chinese karst geology and ecology, but nothing
specific on Emei Shan:
Guidebook for Ecosystems of Semiarid Karst in North China and
Subtropical Karst in Southwest China
http://www.karst.edu.cn/guidebook/index.htm
_________________________________________
Here is a report that I wasn't able to find online, but sounds as
though it may be interesting as far as fossil assemblages in the
Sichuan Province limestones are concerned:
Chen Junyuan & Lindström, M. 1991. A Lower Cambrian soft-bodied fauna
from Chengjiang, Yunnan, China. - In: Early Life. Proceedings of a
Geological Society Symposium in Stockholm, March 22-23, 1990. Geol.
Fören. Stockholm Förhandl., 113: 79-81. Chen Menge 1982. [The new
knowledge of the fossil assemblages from Maidiping section, Emei
County, Sichuan with reference to the Sinian-Cambrian boundary]. -
Scient. Geol. Sin., 1982: 253-262.
http://www.uni-wuerzburg.de/palaeontologie/Stuff/litera9.htm
_________________________________________
Another report unavailable on line, but with reference to related
rocks in the Emei structure:
Zeng, Zhengwen 1984: “Experimental Investigation of Texture
Influences on the Failure Mode of Emei Mountain Basalts,” BS Thesis,
Southwest Jiaotong University, China.
_________________________________________
You will want to check into the Institute of Karst Geology, under the
Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences. Presently, their web site is
down, however you can view it here:
://www.google.com/search?q=cache:cb8EbMKkLXIC:www.cags.cn.net/html/2/2-
6.htm+chengdu+karst+geology&hl=en&ie=UTF-8
Or here:
http://web.archive.org/web/20011120193142/http://www.cags.cn.net/html/2/2-6.htm
_________________________________________
An interesting comparison of carbonate rocks in China and Nevada:
http://geopubs.wr.usgs.gov/open-file/of98-466/Of98_466.pdf
_________________________________________
Another report on related geology:
Ma, X., M.W. McElhinny, B.J.J. Embleton, and Z. Zhang, Permo-Triassic
palaeomagnetism in the Emei Mountain region, southwest China,
Geophysical Journal International, 114, 293-303, 1993a. This report
is probably only able to be found in libraries, as the online archives
only go back to 1998, however, you can buy a subscription to this
journal or purchase individual articles online from this page:
http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journals/gji/
_________________________________________
The Maokou Formation overlies limestone/carbonate rocks in all the
regions mentioned in this quote. I believe that Mt. Emei lies within
the Qiangtang Terrane:
“On the Yangzi Platform Emeishan basalt overlies the Late Permian
Maokou Limestone Formation, corresponding to the Capitanian/Kazanian
chronostratigraphic stage (Chung et al., 1998) or the Kungurian to
Capitanian stages (Ma et al., 1993). The basaltic-andesitic sequence
occurring in the eastern part of the Qiangtang Terrane of uncertain
(Late Triassic or Permian) age (Wang and Burchfiel, 2000) overlies
limestone beds which have been correlated with the Maokou limestone
(Chung et al., 1998). In the Songpan-Ganzi terrane the basaltic
succession overlies Late Permian carbonate formations.”
I couldn’t find thickness information on the Maokou for Sichuan
Province, but came across this for the Hunan and Yunan areas:
Field Camp 2001: Exploring the Human and Physical Diversity of Yunnan,
China.
http://gislab.hkbu.edu.hk/geores/Trips/Fcmp_Yn20/Yunnan_report.pdf
(The Kong Kong British University site was not accessible, so I used
Google’s cached HTML version:
http://216.239.53.100/search?q=cache:MB3agTlz1NoC:gislab.hkbu.edu.hk/geores/Trips/Fcmp_Yn20/Yunnan_report.pdf+maokou+sichuan&hl=en&ie=UTF-8)
“The main strata in the Stone Forest area are comprised of carbonate
rocks of the Qixia Formation and Maokou Formations of Lower Permian
age. These units average 505 m thick and consist of shallow sea
platform sediments…”
Another good report concerning karst and the Maokou Formation is here:
Karst Geology, Geomorphology and Ecosystems of Shilin, Yunnan
http://www.karst.edu.cn/guidebook/shilin/shilin.htm
REFERENCES TO LIMESTONE AND/OR CAVES
A reference to Emei caves from a tourist site:
http://users.pandora.be/worldtravelstories/sacred_mountains.htm
“Emei means in Chinese 'the eyebrows of Buddha'. One says you can see
the 'halo of Buddha' in the clouds when standing on the top and the
light is dim enough. Along the way to the summit (many many steep
stairs) there are macaw monkeys, which will grab everything and can be
quite agressive. There are different monasteries, temples, sacred
caves, ... and tea houses(!) on the mountain –“)
(Ellipsis as quoted from page.)
And from yet another tourist site:
http://www.earnshaw.com/china/ch26.html
“Recently, Emei Shan has become famous for a gang of three deformed
monkeys, fugitives from justice, who have taken to waylaying and
mugging honest travellers. The three, one of whom has a hare-lip,
another only one eye and the third only three fingers on one hand,
live in caves on the slopes of the mountain near the Elephant Bathing
Pool Temple.”
And another:
http://www.absoluteasia.com/travellers/staffpicks.asp
“Emei Shan - one of China's five sacred Buddhist mountains: its
limestone crags give shelter to merchants offering herbs gathered from
the mountain.”
From an interesting paper titled Buddhist Nunneries on Mt. Emei:
http://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~jfknight/nunneries.html
“Mt.Emei is famed for its miraculous power, wondrous beauty, and rich
cultural and religious heritage. Before the arrival of Buddhism in
China in the first century, there were Taoist practitioners living on
Mt. Emei. These Taoist practitioners dwelled in caves or hermitages
that were believed to be based on strong energy fields. The Taoists
worship Mt.Emei as a sacred site where the legendary Taoist master Lu
Chunyan has achieved immortality. The Taoist tradition honors Mt.Emei
as "the Seventh Cave Heaven" among the thirty-six Cave Heavens located
in various regions throughout China.”
I get the impression that Emeishan is quite the tourist destination.
There are food and gift kiosks on the mountain, a staircase that goes
to the top, and a bus and cable car system that also take people up to
the top. It would seem that any significant cave system would have
been discovered and exploited by now, but who knows. I guess that’s
why you want to explore the possibilities, right? |
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