Submarine forest in Shenhu Bay

Submarine forest in Shenhu Bay

The state-level Shenhuwan marine ancient forest heritage Nature Reserve was approved by the State Council in October 1992. The nature reserve is located in Shenhu Bay, Jinjiang City, covering an area of 31 square kilometers. Its protected objects are ancient forest, oyster reef and marine altered rock. This type of reserve is unique in China and rare in the world. Shenhu Bay has a total length of 6 kilometers, with lush trees on the shore. At low tide, there are traces of ancient forests (C14 isotope age is about 7500 years) and oyster reefs in the area of deep Sawan (tuicha). They are valuable materials for studying the geography, paleoclimate, paleontology, paleovegetation, ascending and descending movements, and the changes of sea and land on the west coast of the Taiwan Strait. The State Oceanic Administration has approved the construction of ancient forest relics on the sea floor. Shizhen coastal geological landscape nature reserve, which can be viewed by tourists at home and abroad, is an advanced science tourism area.

characteristic

The reserve is close to the Taiwan Strait, with unique geographical structure, many places of interest, beautiful natural scenery and superior social, economic and cultural conditions. There are more than 20 Keteleeria trees buried in the intertidal zone with a history of more than 7800 years; there are large oyster reefs growing thousands of years ago, typical marine eroded lateritic rocks, oil ooze shoal rocks and fine sand dunes in modern accumulation; there are also unique, typical, well exposed and diverse marine eroded metamorphic rocks that can show the long geological evolution of Paleozoic, Mesozoic and Cenozoic. The establishment of the reserve can provide reliable scientific basis for the study of paleo ocean, paleogeography, paleoclimate, paleovegetation, geological structure of the Taiwan Strait, sea-level movement and Pacific plate movement, as well as the overseas traffic history of Quanzhou ancient port.

Cause of formation

Ancient tree stumps on the sea floor in Shenhu Bay have been discovered by the people for a long time, but their scientific value has not been known for a long time. In fact, Quanzhou and Jinjiang in Fujian Province have long had the ancient legend of "sinking in Tokyo and floating in Fujian", which has far-reaching influence. This may refer to the sinking of the land in Shenhu Bay, which can be related to the remains of the ancient submarine forest in Shenhu Bay. Since the 1980s, Chinese seismologists have investigated for the first time the relationship between "sinking Tokyo" and historical earthquakes in the coastal areas of Fujian and Guangdong, accumulating a lot of important scientific data for modern earthquake prediction. The strict protection of the ancient forest and oyster reef remains will be beneficial to the study of geotectonic movement and earthquakes in the Shenhu Bay and Taiwan Strait.

The ancient forest on the sea floor 7000 years ago, the oyster reef nearly 10000 years ago and other precious "natural monuments", as well as the vivid history of the sea and land changes in the Shenhu Bay, are of great attraction to scientists and tourists. The reserve can not only carry out popular science education for the masses, so that the masses, especially young people, can obtain scientific knowledge, but also provide important resources for the development of coastal tourism.

For a long time, there has been an ancient legend of "sinking in Tokyo and floating in Fujian" in Quanzhou and Jinjiang of Fujian Province, which has a far-reaching influence. The strict protection of the remains of the submarine ancient forest and zhuanglai reef will be beneficial to the study of the geotectonic movements and earthquakes in the Shenhu Bay and Taiwan Strait.

value

In Fuji Bay and Yujin of Japan, the ancient seafloor forests of Populus tomentosa and Cryptomeria fortunei have been found respectively, which have been listed as international natural relics. There are only four red poplar trees, about 8000 years ago, and only a dozen Cryptomeria fortunei trees, about 2000 years ago. The age, scale and quantity of Keteleeria glyptostroboides in Shenhu Bay are similar to those in China. Experts and scholars at home and abroad have great interest in it, and have visited and studied it many times. Overseas Chinese from Quanzhou and Jinjiang are also proud of their hometown. The real value of Shenhu Bay Marine ancient forest heritage Nature Reserve will gradually be recognized by the world and become a valuable natural and historical heritage of mankind.

Address: Shenhu Bay, Jinjiang, Quanzhou, Fujian

Longitude: 118.681591

Latitude: 24.626684