Granite Landforms and Their Origins in the Queshi Area of Shantou, Guangdong, China

Granite, a principal component of continental crust, emerges at the Earth's surface through crustal movements, creating diverse landforms. The Queshi region, comparable to Huangshan in its granite hilly landscape, stands as a representative granite landform in China, yet its origin remains incompletely studied. This investigation utilizes surface landscape and cave analyses to elucidate the characteristics and determining factors of granite landforms in the Queshi region, to comprehend the formation mechanisms of these unique landforms. In the surface investigation, field surveys and aerial photography, employing a DJI Phantom 4 RTK drone, were utilized to measure the morphology and dimensions of exposed rock egg sizes on cliff faces and joint spacing. The survey results facilitated an overall classification of surficial landscapes, encompassing the proportion of rock egg sizes on the mountain and the spacing between the vertical and horizontal joints. To assess mountain development concerning stone eggs, cav