The scale was so intense that the ground was ripped apart, with many acres being lifted up several meters while other pieces sank down. In fact, the split ran right through a dam that broke apart during the shaking. Over millions of years, earthquakes like these created Taiwan in the first place. One key lesson I learned was that many people in rural areas lost their lives due to poorly constructed housing, compared to those in the cities. We then visited Moonworld, a mudstone formation consisting of many pale, white mounds that resembled the moon's landscape. The tops of these mounds contained marine fossils from millions of years ago.
On Saturday, we visited Jialeshuei, a sandstone coastline around Kenting National Park. We didn't go to any beaches, but we noted how the sandstone rocks were angled upward towards the land. This represented parts of the ocean floor colliding with Eurasia and being pushed upward in a slanted way. We also went to Longpan Park, a large hill covered in plant life that was formerly a sandstone reef underwater. Sunday was fossil day. We explored many limestone rock formations near the water that contained coral fossils and live coral reefs. Similar limestone is also found in caves in Texas, representing both Taiwan's and Texas's history of being submerged long ago. Today, agriculture is a large aspect of both places' economies. In the afternoon, we went into the jungle with hammers, trowels and machetes. We broke rocks open to analyze their makeup and dug up all kinds of fossils that we were allowed to keep. I definitely felt like Indiana Jones at that moment.
Finally, we returned home on Monday, but we were all still energetic.
