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Geoscience ›› 2023, Vol. 37 ›› Issue (02): 512-528.DOI: 10.19657/j.geoscience.1000-8527.2023.047

• Tourism Earth Science • Previous Articles    

Characteristics and Assessment of Geoheritage of the Proposed Hualong National Geopark in Qinghai Province

WANG Chongge(), LI Junlei, ZHANG Xujiao(), YUAN Xiaoning, ZHANG Xiangge, WANG Yifan, WANG Kaiya, LIU Xinlan, RAO Haoshu, LIU Jiang, HOU Engang   

  1. School of Earth Sciences and Resources,China University of Geosciences (Beijing),Beijing 100083,China
  • Received:2022-06-21 Revised:2022-12-20 Online:2023-04-10 Published:2023-05-23
  • Contact: ZHANG Xujiao

Abstract:

Establishing national geopark is an effective way to protect geoheritage as well as promote ecological protection and high-quality development of the Yellow River Basin. Also, investigation and assessment of geoheritage are significant to the design and construction of geopark. Hualong county is located at the northeastern margin of Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, and has rich Yellow River cultural relics since the river flows through the county for 168 km. But systematic research is still needed to verify if the geoheritage distributed in the county can meet the requirements of geopark. Based on the geoheritage investigation, this paper quantitatively assesses the value of geoheritage distributed in Hualong county by analytic hierarchy process (AHP),and the boundary of the proposed Hualong National Geopark is confirmed. 40 geoheritages are found in the geopark, covering 6 large categories, 9 categories and 20 sub-categories, including 2 world-class, 6 national-class geoheritages. Among them, Early Paleozoic suture zone on Mount Lajishan, as well as angular unconformity between the Xining Group and Hualong Complex, have significant scientific and global correlation value on the evolution of the Proto-Tethyan Ocean and the uplift of the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, separately. The result shows that Hualong county is well of various, characteristic, significant-value and well-preserved geoheritages, which have the resource natural endowment for establishing National Geopark and the potential to be listed as a UNESCO Global Geopark. This paper provides not only scientific evidence for the application and construction of Hualong National Geopark, but also references for creating the Yellow River Cultural Tourism Belt.

Key words: geoheritage, national geopark, geological value, quantitative assessment, Hualong county, Yellow River basin

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