The rainbow mountains of Gansu
Zhangye Danxia
Striped hills of red, orange, yellow and pale green sandstone in the dry north-west of China.
Why Zhangye Danxia is banded red
Near the city of Zhangye in Gansu province, low hills are striped like layered cake. The rock is sandstone and mudstone laid down over many millions of years. Iron and other minerals in each layer coloured it red, orange, yellow, white or grey-green. Later the layers were tilted by movements of the earth's crust and worn by wind and rain, so the bands now run in diagonal waves across the slopes. The area is protected as a geological park, and visitors walk on raised boardwalks to viewing platforms. Colours are strongest after rain and in low sun. Many photographs seen online are heavily enhanced, and the real hills are softer in tone.
Values are fair approximations of what the eye sees there, not measurements.
Colours tied to Zhangye Danxia
Written by the Rang desk with AI assistance. Background: "Zhangye National Geopark" on Wikipedia. If you know Zhangye Danxia and we have it wrong, tell us.
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The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.
- Shekhawati In: Digrajsingh, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Kutch In: Zeel Satyendra Modi, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Kanchipuram In: Ssriram mt, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Auroville In: Kaspar Konrad, Public domain, source
- Lhasa Cn: 钉钉, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Beijing Cn: N509FZ, CC BY-SA 4.0, source