Landscape TourCaipuao geopark (菜浦澳地質公園)

Caipuao is famous for its seaweed. Moreover, the rock here is rhyolite(流紋岩)which lava erupted and cooled down rapidly. The mineral composition of rhyolite(流紋岩) is similar to granite, but rhyolite cools down faster than granite. Therefore, the rhyolite has tiny crystal and it is not that easy to observe. Most rhyolite has light color, such as white, red or grey.

Overview

Xiju is basically a tuff island. There is also some rhyolite and quartz andesite on this island. Orogeny caused many special landscape in Xiju.

There are many granite scraps in Xiju's tuff. That means more ancient granite was smashed and stirred in newer tuff structure. It's called tuff breccia.

Rock Formation

Magmatism happened many times during cretaceous. Xiju's bottom is granite formed 161 to 137 million years ago.

Faulting activities in south-eastern Fujian caused some faulting 200 to 100 million years ago. Lava and faulting formed metamorphic zone in the east of Fujian. Xiju is on the north end of the eastern Fujian metamorphic zone. The granite base was formed in this period. There are some common types of igneous rocks: andesite, basalt, rhyolite and tuff. Tuff is a kind of volcanic clastic rock.

There are a lot of clastic in its structure. More than 50 % of the clastic are smaller than 2 mm.

Sea Erosion Landscape

Because of tuff rock's cleavage, weathering carved hard rocks into unique shapes. There are some types of sea erosion landscape, like sea cliffs, sea platforms, sea caves sea stacks and sea arches. We can see some of them in Xiju, especially in Caipuao.

Caipuao

Seaweed

Every villager wants seaweed, so villagers ask the god Marshal Chen to judge. When the seaweed season comes, people will hold bidding to determine who gets the right to harvest the seaweed growing on the rocks.

Old Harbor

Before the Qingfan deep-water harbor was finished, Caipuao provided the main summer access to Xiju. When winds and waves reach grade 7, boats need to dock here.

Conical Granite

The shoreline at Caipuao is made up of classic conical granite, arms of which radiate into the sea. The beach of Caipuao is consisted of gravel which seemed hard but actually crunchy.

Sea Fishing

The current at Caipuao is changeable and makes here a good area for fishing. If you come here, you may probably get fruitful results.

Military

There are plenty of military facilities in Stronghold Caipuao and it is also the place where the soldiers lived. Tourists are not allowed at preset, taking pictures toward the stronghold is also forbidden, but people can visit the place above the stronghold.

Landscape Tour - Caipuao geopark introduction

Resource : Yamamoto Legion

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