Meet Zhangye Danxia landforms: The 'Rainbow Mountains’ of China
China is a nation bursting with natural beauty. Starting from its Tianmen Mountain, known as Heaven’s Gate Mountain, to the Yellow River, originating in the Bayan Har Mountains in Qinghai province of Western China, the geographical wonders are spread throughout.
However, nothing perhaps comes close to the vibrant appearance of the Zhangye Danxia landforms, often nicknamed as the Rainbow Ridges or Rainbow Mountains. Located in the Gansu province of northwestern China, these mountainous ranges are among the best illustrations of God's creativity. A sight for sore eyes, the colorful presence creates a delusion, almost as if someone hand-painted the hills in a riot of colours. Let’s learn more about these rainbow coloured mountains of China.
Zhangye Danxia: The paint palette mountains
These landforms are part of the Zhangye Danxia Landform Geological Park, in the Gansu province in China's northwest covering 200 square miles. The beautiful geological formations of China are a UNESCO World Heritage site since 2010.
The landforms are undoubtedly impressive because they have not just one or two but a band of brilliant colors like varying shades of red, purplish red, yellowish green, greyish green, and grey that resemble a watercolour painting.
Interestingly, even though the colour red predominates in these landforms, no two of them are identical in size, texture, or hues. Additionally, the colour can change during the day depending on the sun's direction and where the shadows fall. Surely, a sight to behold!
What gave the Zhangye Danxia its riot of colours?
Well, that would be an unusual blend of red-coloured sandstones and other minerals. But how did that happen? Turns out, the Zhangye region was formerly submerged under the ocean more than 540 million years ago. With time however, this sinking land rose above the sea level (during Crustacean period or 145 to 66 million years ago) and folded into mountain-like landforms, thanks to collision of the underwater tectonic plates.
To cut a long story short, alongside landforms, rivers too emerged in the region, which, over the course of history, caused deposits of red sandstone as well as conglomerates of other minerals such as the mudstone (rich in iron and magnesium content). Due to the constant forces of the water and the wind, they got compressed and even changed shapes. This in turn led to the creation of exotic and colourful landforms such as ridges, isolated towers, steep cliffs, among others. As a result, they now appear somewhat like the Grand Canyon in USA.
Other rainbow coloured landforms in the world
You will be surprised to know that China isn’t the only place on Earth where one can see rainbow-coloured landforms. In fact, in the heart of Peruvian Andes, there’s the Vinicna Mountain also known as “Montana de Colores” that literally translates to “Rainbow Mountain.” In fact, it too was formed in ways similar to Zhangye Danxia.