sixstringphonic:

ambarto:

warrioreowynofrohan:

elwingflight:

Rocks wear hats to protect them from the weather and humans think it looks very cool.

bitten1ce:

Ooh, hey, I know a related thing! We have similar formations in Colorado, and they’re eroded sandstone. What happened was that some sandy areas had heavy rocks/boulders sitting on top & the weight compressed the sand beneath it into stone hard enough to withstand the erosion of the (in this case) Colorado River over the years. This is a picture of Bryce Canyon, with a bunch of those monoliths/columns.

And here’s some at the Colorado National Monument.

caffeinatedcorvids:

introspectivenavelgazer:

adelicateculturecell:

prcphetsofwar:

professorsparklepants:

For reference, here’s what my local mountains look like:

Here’s the general art style Chinese mountains are drawn in:

And here’s how some of them actually look:

professorsparklepants:

I’ve made this post like six times but it still fucks me up the China’s mountains just look like that. Like I spent decades thinking it was stylistic but no, they just have different mountains over there.

What the FUCK

I’m specifically reblogging this here because I know there is a geological reason for this and I know at least one of you has to know it.

Limestone I believe.

Quartz sandstone actually. Limestone is a good guess because it’s very easy to erode, even the wiki article notes most people guess limestone first, but nope! Just a lot of time, and mechanical weathering from ice and plant roots. 

It seems like hoodoos are sort of the opposite of these formations in China though? Those form in very wet conditions, and hoodoos form in dry, hot areas.

More mountains in China (these ones are limestone/karst and are in the southeast):

And these ones are in central China near Song Shan. I don’t know anything about the geology, but they look like the earth was stacked like pancakes and then turned in its side. They’re fantastic!

Another example of the thing shown above (rock columns left due to particular erosion patterns) is the Putangirua Pinnacles in New Zealand

Which as a fun fact was the setting for the Paths of the Dead in Return of the King. Here is a little summary about them

I LOVE ROCKS