Abstract:
Spectacular towers (average 130 m high) are to be seen in the Lijiang plain near Guilin in middle and upper Devonian limestone forming a downthrown structural panel surrounded by the high relief of a cockpit karst. The limestone was fractured by at least three Triassic and Tertiary tectonic episodes. Statistical analysis of the altitudes of tower summits shows that they are distributed according to a log-normal law with a well marked mode at 250-280 m. This mode is very similar to that of the depression altitudes of the cockpit karst. It was deduced that tower summits and cockpit bottoms show that there was an ancient, relatively flat surface which was the basic level for flow in the surrounding karstic relief (water table at ground level). Fall in this ground water caused preferential karstic breakdown in very fractured zones, leaving the stronger blocks. This subsidence must have taken place in stages, as is shown by Pliocene and lower Quaternary fossil cavities at various altitudes of the towers. Observation of fracturing in the field, in aerial photographs and satellite images show that the edges of the towers are mainly transverse faults with sub-vertical planes