Yuanmou Earth Forest…Various and lifelike

Earth forests are loose deposits of clay, sand and gravel from the Quaternary lake and river phases, formed by erosion and scouring by seasonal rainwater in a dry climate environment. This type of deposit is gently sloping and has been cut into numerous gullies by the erosion of surface water. In some strata, due to the enrichment of iron cement, a hard iron cap is formed after weathering, which protects the clay and gravel layers underneath and weakens the erosion of rainwater, thus forming earth forests like towers and pillars, like the ruins of an ancient castle, with anthropomorphic images in various poses and lifelike. Earth forests are generally distributed in small basins of lake sediments, with Banguo and Waibao in the Yuanmou Basin in Yunnan being the most typical.