| Abstract: | The fieldwork and experiments indicate that the red weathering crust, which developed on the limestone of Tibet Plateau and its eastern district, is a component of common planation surface of karst. The evidences are as follows: (1) They distributed in transverse continuity and often covered on the summit plane of hills. They correspond with a certain geomorphologic surface, for example, near Lijiang of Yunnan, there are summit planes of little undulation, the red weathering crust of large area distributed on the summit plane, and there are also many dolines and closed depressions up to hundreds of meters in diameter. (2) According to the situation of karst development, the soil loss made the fine sediments to be washed away through the crack in the district which vertical process developed well. Therefore, even if in the most active district of karst process, the weathering crust of continuous heavy layer can not be formed only if there existed a certain undulation. The organic soil and redizina can only be formed, and their main types of soil profile are AF\|D and A\|D. The thick weathering crust is only observed on the karst plane nearby base\|level of erosion. (3) The existence of terra rossa indicates the humid tropical/subtropical environment. The study results show that the component of red weathering crust on the limestone generally had the character of high content of clay particles(<2μm) and the weak process of silicon losing and aluminium concentration comparing with typical terra rossa. These characters indicate that its forming environment was humid and eluviation was weak. This situation only existed in the peneplain environment where groundwater was shallow and drainage condition was not very well. In a word, the forming time of thick weathering crust in the limestone district corresponded with the period of peneplain, and the forming altitude height was near the base level of erosion. So the red weathering crust of limestone had the significance of geomorphologic stage. These knowledges were important for assessing of the degree of Tibet Plateau uplift by the use of red weathering crust. |
