Weizhou
Encyclopedia
Weizhou Island is a Chinese
island
in the Gulf of Tonkin
. The largest island of Guangxi
province, Weizhou is west of Leizhou Peninsula
, south of Beihai
, and east of Vietnam
. Administratively, it is part of Weizhou Town
, Haicheng District
of Beihai
City.
built a Gothic-style
15 metre Catholic
church in Shengtang Village (盛塘村; pinyin: shèngtáng cūn), Weizhou. Weizhou Chengzai Church (城仔教堂) was built in 1880, also by French Catholics.
Vietnam's government had controlled the island for a long time, they built many temples and pagodas before returning Weizhou and Xieyang island to the Chinese government.
that rose 50–32 million years ago, as a result from the collision of the Indian and Eurasian plate
. When the plume reached the asthenosphere
, it helped to create the South China Sea
by the plume's lateral flow. An evidence that the plume still exists is that a lot of basalt
has since the Pliocene
erupted in the South China Sea and its adjacent areas, for example the Yandunling 烟墩岭) and Yantouling (烟头岭) volcanoes, Leiqiong (雷琼) volcano group, Weizhou Dao and Xieyang Dao.
The mantle below the Weizhou island has an average temperature of 1,661 °C, which is between the corresponding values of the Hawaii
hotspot
and the Iceland
hotspot
.
, when mainly ash began to erupt from the bottom of the sea.
The second time, between 9–225 million years ago, started with basaltic magma eruptions, and ended with pyroclastic
eruptions. This was the time with the heaviest eruptions on Weizhou and Xieyang.
The third time began with large amounts of volcanic bombs and ended with basaltic magma, this was from 200,000 to 15,000 years ago.
The fourth time, from 10,000 to 7,100 years ago, a few intermittent eruptions happened, first mainly with volcanic bombs, and in the end volcanic ash.
People's Republic of China
China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...
island
Island
An island or isle is any piece of sub-continental land that is surrounded by water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, cays or keys. An island in a river or lake may be called an eyot , or holm...
in the Gulf of Tonkin
Gulf of Tonkin
The Gulf of Tonkin is an arm of the South China Sea, lying off the coast of northeastern Vietnam.-Etymology:The name Tonkin, written "東京" in Hán tự and Đông Kinh in romanised Vietnamese, means "Eastern Capital", and is the former toponym for Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam...
. The largest island of Guangxi
Guangxi
Guangxi, formerly romanized Kwangsi, is a province of southern China along its border with Vietnam. In 1958, it became the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China, a region with special privileges created specifically for the Zhuang people.Guangxi's location, in...
province, Weizhou is west of Leizhou Peninsula
Leizhou Peninsula
The Leizhou Peninsula or Leizhou Bandao is a peninsula in the southernmost part of Guangdong province in southern China.-Geography:Leizhou Peninsula is the third largest peninsula in China with an area of of circa 8,500 square kilometer located on the southwestern end of Guangdong, with the Gulf...
, south of Beihai
Beihai
Beihai is a prefecture-level city of Guangxi, China. Beihai means "north of the sea" in Chinese, signifying its status as a seaport on the north shore of the Gulf of Tonkin. Between the years 2006 and 2020, Beihai is predicted to be the world's fastest growing city...
, and east of Vietnam
Vietnam
Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
. Administratively, it is part of Weizhou Town
Weizhou, Haicheng District
Weizhou Town is a town of Haicheng District, Beihai City, Guangxi Province, in southern China.The town includes Weizhou Island and a smaller 1.89 km² Xieyang Island. It includes 2 neighborhood committees, 9 village committees....
, Haicheng District
Haicheng District
Haicheng District is the seat of Beihai City, Guangxi, China. It has 51 neighborhood committees and 20 village committees.* Area: 140 km²* Population: 240,000* District seat: at Gulf of Tonkin Way - Subdivisions :* Dongjie Sub-district...
of Beihai
Beihai
Beihai is a prefecture-level city of Guangxi, China. Beihai means "north of the sea" in Chinese, signifying its status as a seaport on the north shore of the Gulf of Tonkin. Between the years 2006 and 2020, Beihai is predicted to be the world's fastest growing city...
City.
- Area: 24.74 km²
- Temperature: 23 °CCelsiusCelsius is a scale and unit of measurement for temperature. It is named after the Swedish astronomer Anders Celsius , who developed a similar temperature scale two years before his death...
- PrecipitationPrecipitation (meteorology)In meteorology, precipitation In meteorology, precipitation In meteorology, precipitation (also known as one of the classes of hydrometeors, which are atmospheric water phenomena is any product of the condensation of atmospheric water vapor that falls under gravity. The main forms of precipitation...
: 1,863 mm
Geography
Its north-south length is 6.5 km, east-west 6 km. The coast is 15.6 km, with 6 to 10 km of sandy beach. Weizhou rises in the south, where Nanwan Port (南灣港; pinyin: nánwān gǎng) is located.History
From 1869 to 1879, the FrenchFrance
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
built a Gothic-style
Gothic architecture
Gothic architecture is a style of architecture that flourished during the high and late medieval period. It evolved from Romanesque architecture and was succeeded by Renaissance architecture....
15 metre Catholic
Catholic
The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...
church in Shengtang Village (盛塘村; pinyin: shèngtáng cūn), Weizhou. Weizhou Chengzai Church (城仔教堂) was built in 1880, also by French Catholics.
Vietnam's government had controlled the island for a long time, they built many temples and pagodas before returning Weizhou and Xieyang island to the Chinese government.
Before the birth of the island
Weizhou Dao is China's youngest volcanic island. Its origin is probably from a mantle plumeMantle plume
A mantle plume is a hypothetical thermal diapir of abnormally hot rock that nucleates at the core-mantle boundary and rises through the Earth's mantle. Such plumes were invoked in 1971 to explain volcanic regions that were not thought to be explicable by the then-new theory of plate tectonics. Some...
that rose 50–32 million years ago, as a result from the collision of the Indian and Eurasian plate
Plate tectonics
Plate tectonics is a scientific theory that describes the large scale motions of Earth's lithosphere...
. When the plume reached the asthenosphere
Asthenosphere
The asthenosphere is the highly viscous, mechanically weak and ductilely-deforming region of the upper mantle of the Earth...
, it helped to create the South China Sea
South China Sea
The South China Sea is a marginal sea that is part of the Pacific Ocean, encompassing an area from the Singapore and Malacca Straits to the Strait of Taiwan of around...
by the plume's lateral flow. An evidence that the plume still exists is that a lot of basalt
Basalt
Basalt is a common extrusive volcanic rock. It is usually grey to black and fine-grained due to rapid cooling of lava at the surface of a planet. It may be porphyritic containing larger crystals in a fine matrix, or vesicular, or frothy scoria. Unweathered basalt is black or grey...
has since the Pliocene
Pliocene
The Pliocene Epoch is the period in the geologic timescale that extends from 5.332 million to 2.588 million years before present. It is the second and youngest epoch of the Neogene Period in the Cenozoic Era. The Pliocene follows the Miocene Epoch and is followed by the Pleistocene Epoch...
erupted in the South China Sea and its adjacent areas, for example the Yandunling 烟墩岭) and Yantouling (烟头岭) volcanoes, Leiqiong (雷琼) volcano group, Weizhou Dao and Xieyang Dao.
The mantle below the Weizhou island has an average temperature of 1,661 °C, which is between the corresponding values of the Hawaii
Hawaii
Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...
hotspot
Hotspot (geology)
The places known as hotspots or hot spots in geology are volcanic regions thought to be fed by underlying mantle that is anomalously hot compared with the mantle elsewhere. They may be on, near to, or far from tectonic plate boundaries. There are two hypotheses to explain them...
and the Iceland
Iceland
Iceland , described as the Republic of Iceland, is a Nordic and European island country in the North Atlantic Ocean, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Iceland also refers to the main island of the country, which contains almost all the population and almost all the land area. The country has a population...
hotspot
Hotspot (geology)
The places known as hotspots or hot spots in geology are volcanic regions thought to be fed by underlying mantle that is anomalously hot compared with the mantle elsewhere. They may be on, near to, or far from tectonic plate boundaries. There are two hypotheses to explain them...
.
The birth of the island
There have been four periods of volcanic activity on the site, the first one occurred in the early PleistocenePleistocene
The Pleistocene is the epoch from 2,588,000 to 11,700 years BP that spans the world's recent period of repeated glaciations. The name pleistocene is derived from the Greek and ....
, when mainly ash began to erupt from the bottom of the sea.
The second time, between 9–225 million years ago, started with basaltic magma eruptions, and ended with pyroclastic
Pyroclastic flow
A pyroclastic flow is a fast-moving current of superheated gas and rock , which reaches speeds moving away from a volcano of up to 700 km/h . The flows normally hug the ground and travel downhill, or spread laterally under gravity...
eruptions. This was the time with the heaviest eruptions on Weizhou and Xieyang.
The third time began with large amounts of volcanic bombs and ended with basaltic magma, this was from 200,000 to 15,000 years ago.
The fourth time, from 10,000 to 7,100 years ago, a few intermittent eruptions happened, first mainly with volcanic bombs, and in the end volcanic ash.
External links
- Official site (in Simplified Chinese)
- local site (in Simplified Chinese and English)