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Datong Volcanoes

Datong volcanoes, known as China's 'coal sea', are located northeast of Datong County at Xigelaoshan. With an area of 60 square kilometers, 10 volcanoes are grouped together, which all differ from each other in terms of shape and size. There are rounded, oval, horse shoe- and cone shaped hills. The most important ones are Heishan, Jinshan, Langwoshan and Gelaoshan.

All of the volcanoes are more or less covered with loess. The layers of loess are thick at the foothill and thin at the top, since the loess is transported to the hilltops by wind. The earliest eruption is thought to have taken place 340 000 BP and the latest around 60 000 – 70 000 BP (mid pleistocene). The real volcanoes was created in a late stage of the eruptions.