Taiwan gorge suddenly appeared, disappearing fast record

A sudden canyon appeared in Taiwan after an intense earthquake 15 years ago, gradually disappearing with unprecedented speed.

Geological changes tend to happen very slowly, lasting millions of years. So when ground-based tectonics appear and disappear within a few decades, scientists will pay special attention to this unusual phenomenon.

Daan river canyon in Taiwan.(Photo: Thinkstock)

The Daan river rock formations in Taiwan suddenly revealed after an earthquake in 1999. The intense seismic name Jiji lifted the stone block about 10 meters high, equivalent to the height of a court. 3-storey house, creating a water dam that stretches nearly 1km across the Daan River in western Taiwan.

Currently this canyon is in danger of disappearing because the river often causes severe and severe flooding. Although every 300-400 years, large earthquakes often shake the region, but the dam is expected to be wiped off the map for erosion in the next 50 years.

"The really interesting thing about this place is that things are happening very quickly and we can observe it. The river can eliminate all evidence (about the previous earthquakes and broken lines), but we can observe processes that we cannot reconstruct , " said Kristen Cook, a geological expert at a German geological research center.

Beginning in 2004, the Daan River overflowed through the dam to prevent natural water, dragging materials into the riverbed, cutting into a new gorge, 1,200 meters long and 20 meters deep in 2008. Erosion process This is progressing very fast, at a speed of 2cm / year.

When the canyon's upper boundary continues to move downstream, the canyon will gradually shorten until the upper boundary reaches the exit of the canyon. At that time, the entire canyon would disappear, the geologist Cook explained.