Kinabalu Plateau: Geological Monument within a Natural World Heritage Site

摘要

The Kinabalu Plateau, an elevated flat area with several isolated peaks at a height exceeding 3 500m, represents a unique geological (landscape) heritage that is different from other elevated plateaus in the wet tropics. This plateau is made up of fresh igneous rock that has been smoothened and polished by glacial erosion. Glacial features displayed on this plateau include U -shaped gullies and valleys, hanging valleys, cirques, roche moutonnees, polished surface, crescentic gauges and fractures, plucking, and grooves and striations. These are evidences of an ancient glacier existing 35 000 to 5 000 years ago that once covered the peak of Mount Kina balu. The world's average temperature, which has become warmer since several thousand years ago, did not allow the glacier to remain on the plateau and to continue its erosional work.