tourism

The Mt Paektu area of the DPRK was registered as a global geopark at the 221st executive council meeting of UNESCO, further highlighting the geological significance and tourist value of the ancestral mountain of the Korean nation.

Over 30 geosites in the Mt Paektu Geopark, a treasure of the world, are to be introduced in serial form.

Mt Paektu volcano

The Mt Paektu volcano is a composite volcanic cone formed by several eruptions of trachytic, trachydacitic and rhyolitic magmas on the Paektu lava plateau that had already been formed by effusive eruption of para-alkaline basaltic magmas between the upper Neocene (from 25 million years ago to 2 million years ago in geological age) and the lower Quaternary (from about 2 million years ago to the present).

On the top of the volcanic body of the mountain, there is a caldera formed by the collapse of mountain body after the Millennium Eruption and it was filled with water to form Lake Chon.

The main mountain body of Mt Paektu is the plateau area covering from the line bordering the alpine flatland rising with the boundary clearly distinct from the low flatland area in the surroundings, to the top of the mountain and this main mountain body is called Mt Paektu.

This main body is nearly oval in plane and dome-shaped in section. It is a high and rugged rocky mountain with many layers of trachytic lavas.

It is 2 750m above sea level and its relative altitude from the water surface of Lake Chon is 560 metres.

Lake Chon of Mt Paektu is surrounded by such mountain peaks as Janggun, Hyangdo, Haeppal and Ssangmujigae. Of them the highest peak is Janggun Peak, rising 2 750 metres high.

These peaks themselves are craters and are at the points where the radial and ring-shaped faults centred on Lake Chon intersect.

Mt Paektu volcano is one of the large and rare composite volcanic bodies, which were formed through almost all stages of volcanic eruptions, is in a best state of preservation in the world and is a very important research base in volcanology, displaying volcanic rocks and layers of various forms of volcanic eruptions.

Jong Il Peak

Jong Il Peak stands imposingly on the banks of the Sobaek Stream as if demonstrating its brave spirit with magnificent yet mysterious shape. It is 1 798 metres above sea level.

It is a volcanic neck, which was formed in such a way that highly viscous trachytic magmas gradually ascended and solidified in the Pleistocene epoch (about 2 million years ago), then the country rocks were eroded and denuded, and the plug mass was preserved.

Here, the volcanic vent refers to the passage of eruption of magma from the magma basin in the depth of the volcanic body up to the land surface. In the old volcanoes, the section of the volcanic vent is exposed in case all or part of the volcanic body is cut off by glaciers and other erosions.

A volcanic vent body rising on the Paektu lava plateau, the peak consists of trachyte.

The characteristics of this trachyte are that it has sanidine phenocryst and pyrites exist in a state of disseminated ore.

Jong Il Peak structurally stands at the intersection of the north-northwestern fault, the major-axis direction of the Kanbaek caldera, and the Sobaeksu fault in the northeast-eastern direction and is the only volcanic vent body remaining in the Kanbaek caldera. Here, caldera refers to a large crater on the volcanic crest, which is at least one kilometre in diameter.

The front surface of Jong Il Peak is a cliff, 50m wide at the top, 80m wide at the bottom and about 100m high.

The north side is connected to Saja Peak with a gradual descent.

One of the unique spectacular natural sights of the volcano group of Mt Kanbaek, Jong Il Peak is the largest lava neck in the Paektu volcanic belt.

Especially, as it is a rare volcanic vent body in the volcanic area of the Quaternary epoch in the world, it is a geosite of international significance.

Hyangdo Peak volcano

The Hyangdo Peak volcano is one of the peaks rising in the east of the outer rim of Lake Chon caldera, 0.98km northeast of the Janggun Peak volcano. It is the third highest of the peaks of Mt Paektu and 2 712 metres above sea level.

The volcano is a volcanic body formed by the eruption of the magmas of trachydacite in the fourth stage of the eruption of the Mt Paektu volcano. At the base of the body, trachyte and trachydacite equivalent for Mt Pukphothae Bed are piled up 440m above the water surface of the lake.

The Hyangdo Peak Bed, 76m in thickness, was formed through over 10 alternate occurrences of effusive and small explosive eruptions of trachydacitic magmas at the crossing point of the radial fault and the first ring-shaped fault in the south-eastern direction.

The top surface is covered with white pumice to a thickness of 1-15m.

A portion of Hyangdo Peak collapsed on the side of Lake Chon to produce cliffs and, as a result, the cliffs where the Hyangdo Peak Bed developed had a gradient of 75-80°, while the cliffs where the Mt Pukphothae Bed developed had a gradient of 45-65°. The gradient of Hyangdo Peak at the outside of Lake Chon is 25-30° and is steeper than that of Janggun Peak.

The volcano is a geosite of great significance in the study of the eruption process of Mt Paektu volcano, as it provides the views of the layers of pyroclastic rocks, products of explosive eruption, and dense lava flows, products of effusive eruption, in a geological section.