Earth Meets Mars In Taiwan's Otherworldly Yehliu Geopark

If youve always dreamt of visiting Mars but never had the transportation, funds or breathing capability to make the trip, youre in luck.Along the northern coast of Taiwan, on a tiny peninsula about an hours drive from Taipei, lies the gorgeous Yehliu Geopark ' home to some bizarre rock formations that will leave you questioning whether youre standing on the red planet.Here, the East China Sea hastaken a tollon sedimentary rock.For years, Yehliu was one of Taiwans best-kept secrets. But in 1962, Taiwanese photographer Huang Tse-Hsui created a series of photographs focusing on the park.Since then, thousands of visitors have flocked to Yehliueach year to catch a glimpse of this otherworldly landscape.If their bizarre appearances werent enough, these formations have earned some prettyawesome nicknames, from ice cream andhoneycombed rocks to gorilla and dragons head.Perhaps the most well-known rock isQueens Head,which eerily resembles a head with a distinct nose, mouth and crown.The formations may look like hard, sturdy structures,but park officials worry weather and visitors are having an effect. Queens Head, for example,lost a whopping five inches from the circumference of her neck within the last eight years.Desperate for solutions, the park hasrecruited academic groups to use 3D scanners to measure the amount of weathering the rock formations experience over time. Park officials have also started teaching visitors about conservation so that travelers and locals alike can help prevent the beautiful formations from deteriorating.Check out the amazing Yehliu Geopark in these rockin pictures below. -- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
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