Baigong Pipes

The Baigong Pipes are a series of pipe-like features 2 Investigation

found on and near Mount Baigong, about 40 km southwest of the city of Delingha, in the Haixi Mongol and Ti- According to news stories, the pipes were rst discovered
betan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province, China. by a group of scientists from the United States who were
seeking dinosaur fossils. The scientists are said to have
reported the pipes to local authorities in Delingha. However, the pipes did not attract attention until a report, possibly one of six made by Ye Zhou, appeared in the Henan
Dahe Bao (
Henan Great River News) in June
2002. Quin Jianwen, a local ocial, discussed the pipe1 Mount Baigong
like features with journalists of the Xinhua News Agency
on June 16, 2002. The local government now promotes
Some of the Baigong Pipes are reported to be associated the pipe-like features as a tourist attraction, with road
with three caves in Mount Baigong. These caves are re- signs and tourist guides.[3]
ported to occur within the front face of Mount Baigong.
According to a 2003 article in the Xinmin Weekly,[4] ChiThe mouths of the two smaller caves have collapsed. Only
nese scientists using atomic emission spectroscopy found
the largest cave, which is 6 meters (18 feet) high, can
the Baigong Pipes to contain organic matter of plant oribe entered. The vague resemblance of the top of Mount
gin. In addition, the news article also stated that tree rings
Baigong to a pyramid has been the focus of much fringe
were found in sections of these rock formations and, as
speculation.[1][2]
a result, they were judged to be fossil trees or tree roots.
Two Baigong Pipes have been reported from the largest However, like many other aspects of the Baigong Pipes,
cave. One of these is described as being 40 cm (16 in) in this news report remains unsupported by either any scidiameter and preserved as a reddish-brown half-pipe. entic publication or other reliable primary or secondary
Within the same cave, another pipe-like feature of similar source that discusses and documents these ndings in any
diameter was also found. Dozens of upright pipe-like detail.
features, about 10 to 40 cm (4 to 16 inches) in diameter,
The state-run newspaper Peoples Daily reported on a
were also found protruding from Mount Baigong above
2007 investigation where a research fellow from the Chithe largest cave.[1][2]
nese Earthquake Administration reported they had found
Additional Baigong Pipes were found on shore and within some of the pipes to be highly radioactive.[5]
Toson Lake, which lies 80 meters (260 feet) from the
mouth of the largest cave. On the beach of Lake Toson, about 40 meters (130 feet) from the mouth of the
largest cave, apparently at-lying, hollow, pipe-like fea- 3 Similar phenomena
tures were found. These reddish-brown pipe-like features
range in diameter from 2 to 4.5 cm (0.8 to 1.8 inch) and 3.1 Navajo Pipes
have an east-west orientation. Another group of pipe-like
features, presumably vertical, either protrude from or lie Natural pipe-like features, which appear to be similar to
just below the surface of the lake.[1][2]
the Baigong Pipes, occur in the Navajo Sandstone and
Associated with these pipe-like features are rusty
scraps and strangely shaped stones. Analysis of the
rusty scraps by Liu Shaolin at a local smeltery reportedly found that they consist of 30 percent ferric oxide and
large amounts of silicon dioxide and calcium oxide.[2] Because any metallurgical analysis reports the composition
of a material analyzed, not in terms of the actual minerals
comprising it, but only in terms of percentages of the oxides of the specic elements present, the calcium present
in the pipes could have been in the form of calcite, a
mineral that naturally forms concretions.

other sandstones of Southwestern United States. The

bleached sandstone seen in the cave entrance is typical of
sandstones in which natural pipe-like features have been
found.[6][7] Beitler[6] describes them as hollow subhorizontal planar strata-bound pipes and vertical pipes.
They range in size from less than 1 cm to greater than
50 cm in diameter and their walls are as much as 1 cm
thick. They extend through the Navajo Sandstone for
more than several meters. They are regarded as having
formed as the result of the dissolution of siderite cements
and the redistribution and oxidization of the released iron
1

by groundwater ow.[7]
Hematite also occurs as other masses of diagenetic
ironstone that exhibit a wide and amazing range of
bizarre shapes, which can be described as both strangely
shaped stones and rusty scraps. Strangely shaped
stones, pipe-like features, and other concretionary masses
have been observed and described from the Navajo and
other Jurassic sandstones in Utah and adjacent American
states.[6][7][8]
The reported composition of the rusty scraps, 30 percent
ferric oxide and large amounts of silicon dioxide and calcium oxide, is consistent with the hematite masses found
in the Navajo and other Jurassic sandstones in Utah and
elsewhere in the Southwestern United States. The ferric oxide and large amounts of silicon dioxide is what
a person would expect iron oxide cemented sandstone
to consist of. Calcite and other carbonate cements and
concretions are typically associated with the hematite
masses in the Navajo and other sandstones and sedimentary rocks.[6]

3.2

Louisiana Cylinders

EXTERNAL LINKS

Sandstone of South-Central Utah, U.S.A. Journal of Geology. v. 119, no. 5, pp. 505-520.
[8] Chan, M.A., W.T. Perry, and J.R. Bowman (2000)
Diagenetic Hematite and Manganese Oxides and FaultRelated Fluid Flow in Jurassic Sandstones, Southeastern
Utah. American Association of Petroleum Geologists
Bulletin. v. 84, no. 9, pp. 12811310.
[9] Mossa, Joann; Schumacher, B.A. Fossil tree casts in
South Louisiana soils. Journal of Sedimentary Petrology
63 (4): 707713.

5 External links
Brian Dunning, 2009, The Baigong Pipes: Do modern metal pipes buried in ancient Chinese stone prove
that aliens must have visited? , Skeptoid: Critical
Analysis of Pop Phenomena no. 181, November 24,
2009
anonymous, 2013, Liesegang Band resembling an
iron pipe., Arkansas Geological Survey, Little Rock,
Arkansas.

anonymous, 2015, Geopic of the week: Sandstone

Cylindrical structures very similar to the Baigong Pipes
pipe. and More views of sandstone pipes, Arkansas
have also been found protruding from outcrops of
Geological Survey, Little Rock, Arkansas.
Pliocene Citronelle Formation in the Florida parishes
of Louisiana and in older Pleistocene uvial sediments
37918.82N
9701.99E
/
within South-central Louisiana. These structures are as Coordinates:
37.1552278N
97.0005528E
much as 70 cm in diameter and 100 cm in depth. Detailed
studies of these cylindrical structures found that they were
created by the formation of ironstone rims around tap
roots of pine trees by soil forming processes.[9]

References

[1] Chinese Scientists Head for Suspected ET Relics. Xinhua News Agency. 2002-06-19. Retrieved 2006-11-20.
[2] Li, Heng (2002-06-25). Mysterious Pipes Left by 'ET'
Reported from Qinghai. Peoples Daily Online. Retrieved 2006-11-20.
[3] Lusby, J.; Wan A (July 1831, 2002). 1998 Discovery
of Millennia-Old Spacecraft Launch Pad in China?". City
Weekend.
[4] Alien Ruins Show. Xinmin Weekly. 2003-10-13.
[5] Probing into the ET relic site in Chinas Qinghai. Peoples Daily. May 2007.
[6] Beitler, B., W.T. Perry, and M.A. Chan (2005)
Fingerprints of Fluid Flow: Chemical Diagenetic History
of the Navajo Sandstone, Southern, Utah, U.S.A. Journal
of Sedimentary Research. v. 75, no. 4, pp. 547561.
[7] Loope, D.B., R.M. Kettler, and K.A. Weber, 2011,
Morphologic Clues to the Origins of Iron OxideCemented
Spheroids, Boxworks, and Pipelike Concretions, Navajo

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