Tourists who come to Lushan will learn that all of the mountain's stones and rocks consist of tiny stone particles. These stones are mainly different kinds of sandstone which were formed about 800 million years ago when Lushan was a shallow sea. Over millions of years the sediment and sand from the sea combined and hardened into the sandstone of the present-day Lushan.
About 200 million years ago, the earth became very active. Hot magma from deep beneath the earth's shell started pushing up to the surface of the planet, changing everything in its wake. At this time, Lushan was a flat bay of shallow water resting on top of very thick and solid sandstone. The sandstone was so strongly formed that when the magma reached the bay it could not break through the layers of stone beneath it. The stone kept the magma from breaking free and completely changing the surface of the area, but the intense pressure pushed the sandstone stratum upwards, turning the bay into a high mountain. The newly formed mountain remained a volcano until about 20 million years ago, when the movement of the magma finally slowed down, allowing it to cool and merge with the sandstone of the mountain.
Lushan's landscape is full of precipitous cliffs, such as Five Old Men Peak, Dragon Head Cliff and Immortal’s Cave. These peaks are the result of the magma that tried to push its way out onto the surface of the earth. Before the magma, the stratum of Lushan was connected with the surrounding strata, but the strength of the pushing magma split it from its surroundings. This created a phenomenon referred to as a "fault". In this situation, a fault describes a geological condition in which the underlying strata buried deep beneath the earth change positions, creating a break and a resulting locational difference between strata that were once connected. During the creation of Lushan some of the strata below the bay broke away from its original stratum as it was forced upwards to create the mountain. While some strata was forced upwards, other strata was forced downwards. It is because of this creation process that Lushan is called a fault block mountain.
About 3 million years ago the globe moved into an ice age known as the Quaternary Glaciations Period. During this period, the high peaks of Lushan were covered with thick ice. As the period ended, the ice on the top of the mountain slowly slid down to the foot of the mountain, creating various glaciations as it went. Because of the massive sizes of the ice flows, much of Lushan was changed and eroded during the downward descent of the ice. One of the ice flows created a valley known as a U valley, while other flows were responsible for Lushan's hanging valleys, cirques, and horn peaks. The present-day Ruqin and Lulin Lakes were both created by the localized accumulation of massive quantities of ice so heavy that they created depressions in the stone of the mountain. When the ice eventually melted, the depressions became lakes. Lakes that are created in this manner are called ice basins or firn basins.
There is a lot of interesting phenomena to be discovered on Lushan, and many of them are connected with the mountain's geological history. For example, the mountain's delicious potato and fragrant Cloud and Fog Tea , sweet mountain spring and many Chinese medicinal herb are both the products of Lushan's unique geological developments.
This beautiful mountain has transitioned from sea to mountain over the course of millennia. Its long and rich geological history has brought us extraordinary plants and landscapes. Lushan is truly a living geological textbook!