Often surrounded by mist, the tower-like peaks of Tianzi Mountain abruptly rise up from the tree-covered ground below to create a landscape like no other. These 21 square miles of mountain landscape located inside the Wulinyuan Scenic Area amid Zhangjiajie National Forest Park in the Hunan Province of China truly represent one of the most unique formations on Earth.
It’s all too fitting that when James Cameron needed inspiration for the alien landscape of “Pandora” depicted in Avatar, he turned to Tianzi Mountain. Discover more about how it formed and why it’s so unique below.Tianzi Mountain is the product of millions of years of sedimentary rock erosion. Its ancient sandstone peaks, as old as 300 million years (sources vary), have been slowly carved out by water and wind. What’s left behind are the weathered, slender towers (some as tall as about 4,100 feet) that resemble skyscrapers more than a city landscape.
Furthermore, the erosion has created distinct, stratified layers that have developed different coloring and shape over the years of exposure to the elements. Meanwhile, younger and less eroded mountains also dot the rest of Zhangjiajie National Forest Park, further contributing to the unique variety of mountain formations found here.
The Tianzi Mountains were formed from quartz sandstone of 400 million years ago through the intermittent rising of the crust for 2 million years. The geological formation belongs to the “New Cathaysian” tectonic system. About three billion ago, the place was a large patch of ocean.
VishnuPriya's blog 