• Date:
  • Category: Culture

China has added three new geological heritage sites to the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS) World Heritage List, bringing the country's total to 13. The announcement was made on November 14, 2026, following the IUGS's release of its third batch of 100 global geological heritage sites in Portugal.

🌍 The Three New Sites

1. Xianshuihe Fault (鲜水河断裂)
Located along the eastern margin of the Qinghai-Xizang Plateau in western Sichuan Province, this fault extends for approximately 400 kilometers. It is recognized as one of the most active intracontinental strike-slip fault systems in the world, uniquely exhibiting both long-term creep and stick-slip behavior. Its well-preserved fault landforms and seismic rupture traces make it a natural laboratory for studying continental earthquake processes and related geohazards, placing it alongside globally renowned structures like New Zealand's Alpine Fault and California's San Andreas Fault.

2. Yunyang Middle Jurassic Dinosaur Fossil Group (云阳中侏罗世恐龙化石群)
Situated in Yunyang, Chongqing, this site is a world-class dinosaur fossil repository discovered in this century. It features an 18.2-kilometer-long "Dinosaur Fossil Great Wall" and the world's largest single Jurassic dinosaur fossil wall, with over 5,000 fossils preserved in their original burial positions. The site's exceptional diversity—spanning 6 classes, 12 orders, and 19 families—fills a critical gap in the global evolutionary sequence of Early-to-Middle Jurassic dinosaurs.

3. Dabie Mountain Triassic Ultrahigh-Pressure Metamorphic Belt (大别山三叠纪超高压变质带)
Straddling the borders of Hubei, Henan, and Anhui provinces, this belt is recognized as the world's largest, most deeply exhumed, and best-exposed ultrahigh-pressure metamorphic belt. It records the complete tectonic process of the collision between the South China and North China blocks over 200 million years ago, where continental crust was subducted to depths of over 100 kilometers into the mantle and then returned to the surface. The presence of minerals such as coesite and diamond provides direct evidence for this deep subduction, fundamentally advancing the theory of continental dynamics.

💎 Significance

Geological heritage sites are defined as key areas of international significance that serve as global reference points or hold exceptional value in the history of geoscience. These three additions underscore China's rich geological diversity and its growing contribution to global geoscientific research. The Xianshuihe Fault's inclusion in the "Tectonic Geology" category, in particular, highlights its outstanding international scientific value alongside other iconic global fault systems.