Xian’an-Type Stone Forest Landscape, Baoting, Hainan

This is a representative type of carbonate stone forest landscape. A typical example is the Xian’an Stone Forest in Baoting, Hainan Province, which developed in Upper Silurian clastic limestone and grey dolomite. There are stone outcrops of low mounds, slopes, ridges and hill tops with elevations of 625–782 m. Many small karst caves exist in the foothills, forming a 3-dimensional stone forest landform. The stone column tops are pointed and sharp, and they can appear like a needle point, sword tip, knife tip or in an angular form. The lower parts of the columns are oval columnar, flat columnar or prismatic. The columns are generally approximately 5 m high and can range from 10 to 15 m, and the highest is 35 m. Because most stone columns have sharp spires, China’s stone forest landscapes are characterised by needle-like landforms. The driving factors for the formation of this kind of landform are a tropical rainforest climate, thriving organisms and the associated biological weathering...