Formation and principle of Ayers boulder in Australia

Ayers Rock, also known as Uluru Rock, is located about 340 kilometers southwest of Alice Springs in north-central Australia. Ayers Rock is 348 meters high and 3000 meters long, with a base circumference of about 8500 meters. It is the largest monolithic rock in the world (although huge, it is only a single stone). It is magnificent, like a natural monument spanning time and space, standing abruptly on the vast wasteland, emitting charming brilliance in the dazzling sunshine. 1873, a surveyor named William Christie gauss crossed this desert. When he was hungry and thirsty, he found the stone mountain as high as the sky. He thought it was an illusion, unbelievable. Gauss came from South Australia, so he named this mountain after Henry Ayers, then Prime Minister of South Australia. Ayers Rock, commonly known as our "navel of the earth", is one of the "Seven Wonders of the World" with a history of 400-600 million years. Now it has become a national park, and thousands of people come here from all over the world to enjoy these magnificent stones every year.

The bottom of Ayers Rock is oval, shaped like a loaf of bread, with slightly rounded ends. It is 3.6 kilometers long, 2 kilometers wide and 348 meters high, and the circumference of the base is about 8.8 kilometers. Rock is composed of gravel with high iron content, and its surface is red due to oxidation, so it is also called red stone. In the vast desert, Ayers boulder suddenly lies on the ground, like a behemoth and a weather-beaten old man, standing here for hundreds of millions of years. Due to the crustal movement, AmadeusBasin, where the boulder is located, pushed upward to form a boulder. About 300 million years ago, another magical crustal movement pushed this huge rocky mountain out of the sea. After hundreds of millions of years of wind and rain, a large area of sandstone has weathered into gravel. Only this boulder has resisted wind and rain erosion with its unique hardness, and there are no cracks and gaps on the whole, which has become an "erosion residual stone" in geomorphology. However, the long-term weathering erosion has made its top smooth and bright, and some grooves and shallow pits with different widths have been formed on the surrounding cliffs. So whenever the rainstorm pours, the waterfall pours around the boulder, which is spectacular.

The aborigines call this stone mountain "Wu Lu Lu", which means "a place for meeting and gathering". Westerners call it Ayers Stone, and its name can be traced back to 1873. A European geologist named Christie Gauss came here to explore and accidentally discovered this world miracle. As he came from South Australia, he named this rocky mountain after Henry Ayers, then Prime Minister of South Australia. What is even more fascinating is that Ayers Si Tong seems to be a beautiful model in nature. She "puts on new clothes of various colors" with the change of morning and evening and the weather. When the sun rises from Ran Ran on the edge of the desert, the boulder is "covered with a reddish coat", dazzling and magnificent; At noon, "put on an orange coat"; When the sun sets, the huge stones are colorful and burn like flames under the blue sky; When night fell, it hastily "changed" into a brown "evening dress" and gracefully returned to the embrace of Mother Earth.

There are different opinions about the reasons for the discoloration of Ayers stone, which geologists believe is related to its composition. Ayers stone is actually a kind of timely sandstone with hard lithology and compact structure. The oxide on the rock surface will change color continuously under the sunlight of different angles in a day. Therefore, Ayers Stone is called "Colorful Stones Mountain", which adds infinite magic.

Ayers stone in the rain is full of weather, flying sand and stones, and the scene of torrential rain is very spectacular. The wind and rain stopped, the waterfall flowed on the stone, and the water vapor was misty, like a girl covered with silver gauze; On the sunny side, a few looming rainbows, like a halo on the head, appear gentle and colorful. Rainwater forms many puddles in the cracks, and the rainwater flowing to the ground irrigates the surrounding plants such as blue-gray sandalwood, red eucalyptus, acacia shrub, desert oak, dune grass and so on. This makes Ayers Stone stand out and glow with vitality.

The aborigines here are Anan ancients who have lived for tens of thousands of years and created splendid culture. They believe that their ancestors created the earth, mountains and rivers. Therefore, the ancient Anan is the inheritor of maintaining this sacred land, and because Ayers Stone is located in the center of Australia, the local aborigines believe that this boulder is the soul of Australia. In many strange caves on Ayers Stone, there are ancient paintings and rock paintings left by aborigines, with clear lines and countless circles, depicting legends and myths of "dream times". Ayers stone has always been the focus of the relationship between religion, culture, land and economy of the indigenous people in the western desert region, and it is the "sacred stone" in their hearts. Many tribal aborigines hold adult ceremonies and sacrificial activities here. Lu Lu National Park is a national property registered by the Australian Heritage Committee. 1985, the Australian government officially returned it to the management of the ancient Anan. Every year, thousands of tourists come to see Ayers Stone.