Is the Cape Stone Forest in Shantou City formed by wave erosion? A comparison of the pedestal rocks on the coasts and the mountains of Queshi in eastern Guangdong, China

Abstract

Cape Stone Forest is a group of granite rock pillars (pedestal rocks) towering over Shilin Lake, on the southern shore of Shantou Bay in eastern Guangdong, China. The rock pillars were previously identified as sea stacks because they have marine notch-like concave sidewalls at their base, and more importantly, the lake is immediately adjacent to the bay, which is exposed to the open sea. However, rock pillars similar in shape and size can also be found at the top of Queshi Mountain, which is only about 300 meters northwest of the lake and about 85 meters above sea level. Therefore, the marine origin of Cape Stone Forest is seriously questioned. In this study, 3D imagery and drone technology were used to collect data in the investigations without direct manual measurements in the water or on the mountain. It shows that the concave sidewalls of the rock pillars in the lake and on the mountains occur at different heights and are exposed to different directions, while a natural sea stack on Mayu Island at the mouth of Shantou Bay has a horizontal notch parallel to the sea level, although the granite rock of the sea stack is the same as that of the lake and the mountains. The eastern side of the island, where the sea stack is located, is exposed to the open sea but blocks large waves for the rock pillars in the lake. Therefore, the origin of Cape Stone Forest cannot be explained by wave-based mechanisms. The only satisfactory explanation that takes into account all the field evidence is that the narrow rock pillars of the lake and mountain were formed by chemical weathering that penetrated closely the spaced joints of the granite rock, and the notch-like concave sidewalls were formed by more effective chemical weathering at the base of the pillars.