Baigong pipes
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What are the Baigong pipes?
The Baigong pipes are pipelike formations located near Delingha in Qinghai province, China. Discovered in 1996, the formations include pipes rising from the floor and embedded in the walls of a cave on Mount Baigong, as well as pipes protruding from the surface of the hill and along the shores of Toson Lake.
While some theories suggest paranormal origins and extraterrestrial involvement, many scientists believe the pipes are fossilized tree roots. Testing found the pipes to be composed of common minerals like ferric oxide, silicon dioxide, and calcium oxide, with 8% of unknown composition. Thermoluminescence testing indicated that the pipes predate human habitation in the area. Geologists have proposed alternative explanations, including magma-filled fissures and iron-rich sediment. However, the most probable theory suggests that the pipes are fossilized casts of tree roots, with organic plant matter found within the pipe material.
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Where in China can the Baigong pipes be found?
The Baigong pipes are located near the town of Delingha in the Qinghai province of China. These pipelike formations were discovered in 1996 by Bai Yu while exploring Mount Baigong in the Qaidam Basin. Inside a triangular cave opening, what appeared to be metal pipes rose from the floor and were embedded in the walls. More pipes were observed protruding from the hill's surface and along the shores of nearby Toson Lake.
Many scientists believe the Baigong pipes are fossilized tree roots, though other theories have been proposed.
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What do the Baigong pipes look like?
The Baigong pipes are pipelike formations located near Delingha in Qinghai province, China. These formations vary widely in size and shape. They appear as an array of metal pipes that rise from the floor and are embedded in the walls of a carved triangular cave opening on Mount Baigong. Additional pipes protrude from the surface of the hill and along the shores of nearby Toson Lake.
While some theories propose paranormal explanations, many scientists believe the pipes are fossilized casts of tree roots. They are largely composed of carbon and pyrite cements, which occur naturally due to geological processes. A government laboratory found that the pipe material consists of 92% common minerals, such as ferric oxide, silicon dioxide, and calcium oxide, while 8% is of unknown composition. Thermoluminescence testing determined that the pipes predate human habitation in the area.
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How were the Baigong pipes formed?
The Baigong pipes are pipelike formations located near Delingha in Qinghai province, China. Proposed explanations range from paranormal to natural causes, but many scientists believe the pipes are fossilized tree root casts.
The pipes, discovered in 1996, are found in and around a cave on Mount Baigong near Toson Lake. Testing revealed that the pipes are composed mainly of common minerals, but about 8 percent is of unknown composition. Thermoluminescence testing showed that the pipes predate human habitation in the area.
Chinese geologists have proposed that the pipes are the result of geological processes. The most probable theory is that they are fossilized tree roots. Researchers have found similar structures in other locations, and tests have revealed organic plant matter within the pipes.
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What theories exist about the origin of the Baigong pipes?
The Baigong pipes are pipelike formations located near Delingha in Qinghai province, China. Since their discovery in 1996, various theories have emerged regarding their origin.
Several paranormal explanations have been proposed, including the possibility of the pipes being evidence of a previous extraterrestrial civilization in the area. However, many scientists believe that the pipes are the fossilized casts of tree roots. According to this theory, mineral elements formed around tree roots, which later rotted away, leaving hollow, pipelike cylinders.
Other theories include the pipes resulting from magma being forced into fissures of hard sandstone due to the uplift of the Plateau of Tibet, or that the fissures filled with iron-rich sediments during flooding, which then hardened into pipelike structures of iron pyrite.
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Why are the Baigong pipes important to scientists and geologists?
The Baigong pipes, located near Delingha in China's Qinghai province, are of interest to scientists and geologists because of the numerous theories regarding their origins. The pipes came to the attention of Western paranormal enthusiasts, who classified them as "out-of-place artifacts," after China’s Xinhua News Agency published articles mentioning the exterrestrial theory and describing a planned scientific investigation of the phenomenon.
Many scientists believe that the formations are fossilized tree roots. According to a 2003 article in Xinmin Weekly, atomic emission spectroscopy revealed organic plant matter within the material making up the pipes, supporting this theory. However, not all investigators agree with this explanation.
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Baigong pipes, pipelike formations found near the town of Delingha, Qinghai province, China. Although numerous theories have been proposed concerning their origins, including paranormal explanations, many scientists believe they are the fossilized casts of tree roots.
The pipes were found in 1996 by Bai Yu, a Chinese writer (or, in some reports, an archaeologist), when he was exploring a remote part of the Qaidam Basin. In an escarpment called Mount Baigong, he spotted what seemed to be a carved triangular cave opening near a saltwater lake called Toson Lake. Thinking that the cave was human-made, he went inside, where he saw what appeared to be an array of metal pipes rising from the floor and embedded in the walls. He observed more pipes protruding from the surface of the hill as well as along the shores of the lake. When he sent samples of the pipe material to a government laboratory for testing, the laboratory reported that 92 percent of the material consisted of such common minerals as ferric oxide, silicon dioxide, and calcium oxide but that 8 percent of it was of unknown composition. Thermoluminescence testing in 2001 established that the pipes long predated human habitation in the area. To some, this strongly suggested the possibility that the pipes were evidence of the presence of a previous extraterrestrial civilization in the area. The formations came to the attention of Western paranormal enthusiasts (who classified them as “out-of-place artifacts”) through articles published by China’s Xinhua News Agency describing a planned scientific investigation of the phenomenon and mentioning the exterrestrial theory.
Chinese geologists visited the site in 2001 and made further observations. They found that the pipes varied widely in size and shape and that they were largely composed of carbon and pyrite cements, all naturally occurring as a result of geological processes. Other explanations for the pipes were proposed. One theory was that uplift of the Plateau of Tibet left fissures in hard sandstone into which magma was forced, and chemical effects of subsequent geological processes resulted in the appearance of rusty iron. However, there was no evidence of ancient volcanoes in the area, and this theory was discounted. Another more promising explanation suggested that the same fissures filled with iron-rich sediments during flooding of the area, and this sediment hardened into pipelike structures of iron pyrite. This theory comported with the area’s geological past.
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However, the theory that the scientists found most likely (according to a 2003 article in Xinmin Weekly) was that the pipes were fossilized casts of tree roots. Two American researchers, Joann Mossa and B.A. Schumacher, had studied similar cylindrical structures found in soils in southern Louisiana and concluded, in an article published in 1993 in the Journal of Sedimentary Research, that processes of pedogenesis and diagenesis had resulted in mineral elements forming around tree roots, the interiors of which rotted away, leaving the hollow pipelike cylinders. The Qaidam Basin had been a subtropical area with plentiful vegetation in an earlier age, and atomic emission spectroscopy revealed organic plant matter within the material making up the pipes. Therefore, Chinese scientists accepted this as the most probable theory to account for the Baigong pipes. However, not all investigators, in China or elsewhere, agreed with that explanation.