(ECNS) -- Three Chinese geological sites have been added to the third batch of 100 geological heritage sites recognized worldwide, bringing the country's total to 13, the China Geological Survey, part of the Ministry of Natural Resources, said Wednesday.
The International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS) recently announced the latest list in Portugal. The three Chinese sites are the Xianshuihe Fault in western Sichuan province, the Yunyang Middle Jurassic Dinosaur Fossil Assemblage in Chongqing and the Triassic Dabie Ultrahigh-pressure Metamorphic Belt.
According to the IUGS, the Xianshuihe Fault, listed in the structural geology category, stretches 350 kilometers (217 miles) along the eastern margin of the Qinghai-Xizang Plateau. It joins well-known tectonic sites such as New Zealand's Alpine Fault and the San Andreas Fault in the United States on the list. It preserves distinctive fault landforms and geological evidence of past earthquakes, offering valuable insights into fault activity, crustal deformation and the processes that shape the Earth's surface.
Researchers from the China Geological Survey have studied the fault for years and found it to be one of the most active fault zones within continents, with slow creep and stick-slip movement occurring together. They said it serves as a natural laboratory for studying earthquake processes within continental interiors and cascading geological hazards, providing an important scientific basis for earthquake prevention and disaster mitigation.
(By Zhang Dongfang)
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