In recent years, vast stretches of "Stone Forests" were found in Musaer and Qitai counties, in eastern Junggar Basin, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. Researches conducted by scientists indicate that, "Stone Forests" are composed of silicified wood evolved from primary forest 300 million years ago. There totaled over a thousand trunks of stone trees in the woods -- such a large amount that is rarely seen in the world. The species of trees include Pseudolarix amabilis, larch, metasequoia, spruce, gingko and birch, etc. The longest individual tree has a length of 26 meters, ranking second in the world.
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Silicified wood, also known as stone tree, is a kind of dendrolite. During Jurassic period dated 195-173 million years ago when the earth's climate was universally hot and humid, the area of today's Junggar Basin of Xinjiang was in an environment of lacustrine bogs, surrounded by primary forests predominated by high and thick gymnospermous plants mixed with abundant fern plants. After long geological evolvement, the organic elements in the tree were completely replaced by mineralized elements, and the tree body became hard and heavy but still in its original appearance.
The district where the distribution of silicified woods is the most concentrated and views are the most spectacular is the "Stone Tree Trench" in the General Gobi in Qitai. The silicified woods here are all indigenous to this region, not transported by external forces. "Stone Trees" are spread over the mountains, leaning over or upstanding. The bark remains vivid yellow brown with legible fiber and annual growth rings. At first glancing at the thickset trunk, branch roots inserted into the terrane, knurls on the trunks, and tilted sprigs, you cannot tell them from modern woodcutting fields immediately. The landscape is studded with slices of silicified woods cracked by weathering, mainly in the color of gray and white, and yellow ocher sometimes. The texture of wood chip is clear. Sometimes, you can pick up integral or bifid oval silicified fruit. Bumping two slices of silicified wood chips together, you can hear clear, crisp and euphonious clash.
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