Wangwushan-Daimeishan Geopark (34˚53΄47˝N to 35˚16΄56˝N, 111˚55΄56˝E to 112˚31΄40˝E) is located in Jiyuan and Xin’an, Henan Province, It is about 170 km from Zhengzhou, the capital of the Province, and 900 km from Beijing. The total area of the park is 986 km2, and the central part is about 273 km2. It consists of gardens such as the Tiantanshan, Fengmenkou and Yellow River Gorges, and 7 scenery sites such as Tiantanshan, Xiaogoubei, Fengmenkou, Fengshihe, Daimeixia Gorge, Longtanxia Gorge and Balixia Gorge. The park is geomorphologically subdivided into the Wangwu Mountain, Daimei Mountain and Yellow River Valley.
Tectonically the park lies on the southern margin of the North China Block, and contains abundant geological archives. In the Wangwu Mountain, there are lots of stratotype sections in lithostratigraphy, including 4 groups and 23 formations. The absolute age of the oldest rock in the area is over 2. 5 billion years. The Linshan Group and the Paleoproterozoic Yingouyu Group are indicative of the history of the integration of the Columbia Supercontinent in the early history of Earth. Moreover, the breakup of the Columbia Supercontinent can be retrieved from Xiyanghe Group, formed in 1.8-1.75 billion years ago, and the Mesoproterozoic Xiaogoubei and Yunmengshan Formations unconformably on the Xiyanghe Group, which are composed of terrestrial clastic rocks deposited in fluvial, littoral and shallow marine facies. The Mesoproterozoic Wangwoshan Movement reunified the isolated blocks into a whole North China crust.
A perfect geological profile section outcrops at Yangtaigong-Tiantanshan, which well recorded the important geological events since 2.5 billion years ago. A huge overturned anticline, formed by the Zhongtiao Movement at 1.85 billion years ago, develops in the lower part of the section. The core of the anticline is composed of the TTG rock suite and the supergene rocks of the Neoproterozoic Linshan Group, whilst the limbs are the schist, marble and quartzite of Paleoproterozoic Yingou Group. The anticline is covered by the Xiaogoubei Formation. So peculiar a geological and structural association perfectly recorded the orogenic events related to the integration (1.8 billion years ago) and the breakup of the North China craton, providing the important information of the formation and the evolution of the North China blocks and the relation to the surrounding blocks.
The Mesoproterozoic Xiyanghe Group at the Xiaogoubei scenery site was formed by the magmatism which is believed to be the largest and most extensive one since the formation of the crystal basement of the North China craton. It distributed like a herringbone along the three-arm rift at Zhongtiao-Wangwu mountains. The group is characterized by volcano-sedimentary rocks shifting between marine and terrestrial facies, spanning a period of 2 billion years.
The Wangmushan Movement is named at Mt. Wangwushan and the movement happened at 1450 Ma ago. This movement is clearly evidenced by the Xiaogoubei conglomerate overlying on the volcanic rocks of the Xiyanghe Group. These un-metamorphic conglomerates, formed in the rift filling time, are highly exposed at the tops of Tiantang and Aobei Mountains, leaving a view like a castle or an altar.
