Taroko National Park
Facing the Pacific Ocean on the east, Taroko National Park lies in the east central Taiwan, and covers a total area of more than 92,000 hectares, stretching 36 kilometers from north to south and 42 kilometers from east to west.
This park is renowned for heavily-forested towering mountains, high cliffs, peaks and deep gorges, of which those soaring over 2, 000 meters above sea level occupy half of the park's area, most notable ones including the majestic 3,740-meter Nanhutashan Mountains, the over-3,000-meter snow-capped Hohuan Peaks, the pyramid-like Central Peak and the rugged Chilai Peaks, making an intricate and majestic terrain. A number of natural watersheds, waterfalls and clear rivers add beauty to the green park, forming its another feature.
Today, the precipitous cliffs rising high above the surrounding valley floors, flecked by rocky outcrops and crisscrossed by rivers and mountain streams are a common sight in this park. Geological history tells the story about how the high mountains, cliffs and deep gorges here were created.
About 4 million years ago, the violent collision between the plate in the Philippine ocean and the plate in the Eurasia took place, and the ancient Taiwan Island gradually took shape as a result. The continuous collisions and extrusions caused the upheavals of the folded mountain ranges including the Central Peak, which was eventually uplifted to a height of 4,000 meters above sea level. Upliftings, followed by river erosions, gave rise to most of the geological formations. The formation of Taroko Gorge involved a number of steps:
Formation of the limestone: Before the existence of Taiwan, calcareous sediments were deposited already in the ocean. As time passed, new sediments kept accumulating on top of the old. These accumulations, followed by lithifications, formed the limestone.
Formation of the marble: Following the deposition of the limestone, layers of other materials deposited above and eventually buried the limestone. After a long period of time, the intense pressure and subterranean heat produced the metamorphism, which transformed the limestone into marble.
Upheaval of marble: About 70 million years ago, the rock strata under the sea were uplifted and, as a result, formed the mountains including the Taiwan Mountain Ranges. At the same time, the horizontal marble strata were uplifted as well.
Repeated upheavals of the marble: About 2 million years ago, the volcanic islands of the Philippine Sea Plate and the Taiwan Mountain Ranges were collided by a plate movement of the Penlai Orogeny, during which the mountain ranges were forced to collide each other and were eventually uplifted. Consequently, the marble stratum also kept on rising from the depth of the earth's crust up to the surface of the ground.
Valleys sculptured by river erosion: During the past millions of years, rainwaters and streams have eroded many rocks into valleys, which were carved deeper and deeper while the mountains kept rising, creating a number of soaring marble cliffs of hundreds of meters high, and precipitous, deep valleys here. The Taroko Gorge, made up of over 1,000 meters of thick marble rocks and stretching over 10 kilometers long, is one of the awe-inspiring valleys that was created this way, and it is one of the magnificent gorges in the world.
The most important river in this park is the Liwu River, which has its source in the Hohuan Mountains and the Chilai Peaks, and has many tributaries. This river and its wide-spread tributaries offer water supply to 2-3 of the total drainage area in this park, forming lifegiving water for the wonderful natural ecosystem and the enchanting natural landscapes.
A great number of stones in this park wear different colors such as scarlet, dark green, dark yellow and snow-white, making the rocks and waters colorful and picturesque.Many marbles, green, blue, light yellow, white or grey in color, have varied patterns and fine textures, resembling colorful clouds or watercolor paintings, or art works elaborated by nature. It is the subterranean heat and its pressure that created these colors.
The precipitous cliffs, the walls of the deep valleys are adorned by colored marble rocks. Even the highways built on marble rocks also show different colors. Muticolored minerals add beauty to the park as well.The magnetites and the green hard earth minerals at the Sakatang River, and the colors of the sand, gold, quartzits and vellow iron minerals at the Liwu River make the landscape more vivid.
This park abounds with plant life, that remains pristine and intact, and varies with altitude.The wide range of elevations in this park from sea level up to over 3,700 meters, and varied climatic zones give rise to the different sorts of plants that represent all the varieties of vegetation in Taiwan Island except those endemic to sandy soils, seashores and the offshore islands. More than 1,100 species of indigenous vascular plants thrive here, of which 57 species are rare or endangered.
The mountains of less than 1,500 meters in elevation are cloaked with broadleaf forests dominated by trees of beech, laurel and mulberry families such as blue Japanese oak (Cyclobalanopsis glauca), Taiwan phoebe (Phoebe formosana) and Taiwan fig (Ficus formosana).
Mixed stands of coniferous trees and broadleaf trees such as Taiwan false cypress (Chamaecyparis obtusa var. formosana), Taroko oak and Taiwan phoebe flourish on the mountains of 1,000 - 2,000 meters in elevation.
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