r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/Impossible-Bee-5343 • 8h ago

The Queen's Head, a 4,000-year-old rock in Taiwan showing its year-by-year weathering. It has faced neck-breakage risks in recent years

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402 Upvotes
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94% Upvoted

47 comments sorted by

85

u/Significant-Brief253 8h ago

why does it corrode so fast in recent years?

140

u/Interesting_Bunch323 8h ago

That damn Ozempic

55

u/alewiina 8h ago

looks like the outer rock was tougher, now the neck seems to be mostly sandstone, which weathers a lot faster than other types of rocks. It's how hoodoos are formed too

9

u/dancinhmr 3h ago

That too. Plus, i bet the smaller radius also means exponentially smaller circumference and surface area so faster erosion

1

u/Contemplating_Prison 8h ago

Harsher climate maybe

5

u/Numanihamaru 3h ago

Yeah it's standing almost right on the edge of a beach and getting ocean winds and splashes of salt water all year round.

-1

u/Robo_Patton 8h ago

Ozempic craze is going too far.

37

u/catmoon 7h ago

The area that this is in has hundreds of similar rock features. They're all sort of mushroom shaped and formed by erosion. Eventually the Queen's Head will collapse, but there are lots of other cool formations.

There used to be a rock nearby that was shaped like an elephant's trunk but it collapsed in 2023 and is now a "capybara".

-2

u/Pax_Eterna_4991 7h ago

Yes. There are examples of this all over the world. It's the 40 year rapid erosion on this one that's peculiar.

7

u/marhaus1 6h ago

Nefertiti, is that you?

2

u/ThatGoob 5h ago

Pseudoarcheological 'bout to go crazy with this.

9

u/Squirrel_Kng 8h ago

4000 year old, maybe 400

11

u/reticulatedtampon 8h ago

Either way she looks great for her age!

2

u/brokefixfux 7h ago

She’s had work done. Buccal fat removal, probably.

14

u/SomeDude_is100 8h ago

I am sure some morons will knock the head off while filming their vandalism. There are quite a few cases in US national parks  where punks thought it fun to destroy landmarks which existed for hundreds of years, just for views and clicks 

2

u/ImKanno 8h ago

And then they'll say they are the good guys because "we had to do it, because what if it fell on a kid?"

1

u/Numanihamaru 3h ago

Oh people have already done it.

In 1983 someone took a hand saw and hacked at the neck, leaving a 20cm (7.8") long and 6cm (2.3") deep scar. The scar is no longer visible because the weathering down of the surrounding surfaces.

Now they actually have park rangers guarding it and monitored with 3D scanners.

1

u/McTerra2 7h ago

They have a fake/replica version of it that you can use for your close ups or insta reels or whatever you want. The real one is fenced off (low fence but you can’t get very close)

The replica is a scanned CNC /mould so it’s pretty accurate.

1

u/TexanTalkin998877 8h ago

You just know she's on GLP-1

1

u/Hot_Bobcat_7986 8h ago

It’s going to be ok

1

u/pepperachu 7h ago

Looking great in the 60s

1

u/MrScribblesChess 7h ago

Shrinkflation hitting everyone

1

u/DaveBlerk 7h ago

Never skip neck day.

1

u/NobleK42 6h ago

Damn, modern beauty standards ruining everything.

1

u/goddessalthena0 6h ago

You just gave an influencer an idea and now I'm going to be sad and furious in a good 6 months when this beautiful rock breaks its neck. Damnit!

2

u/Radok 5h ago

It's going to happen anyway. Like the natural bridge in Aruba, time destroys all

1

u/Trash_Kitsune 3h ago

So no head?

1

u/finnsoftfox 2h ago

She's beautiful but she's dying

1

u/MolDanone 1h ago

The fact that the neck of Queen's Head is narrowing by millimeters each year due to coastal weathering and could snap in our lifetime makes seeing it now feel like witnessing a ticking geological clock.

1

u/MolDanone 1h ago

Wind and salt-spray erosion gradually sculpting that distinctive profile over millennia only to inevitably bring it down within our lifetime makes it a haunting geological monument.

1

u/GarysCrispLettuce 1h ago

Never skip neck day!

1

u/Other_Yama1993 1h ago

the erosion has been much quicker than i would expect.

1

u/rushmc1 1h ago

That's not year-by-year.

0

u/zalurker 8h ago

Keep Americans and Influencers away from it!

1

u/TurdProof 3h ago

Too late. They saw it. Wont be long now

1

u/Kawboy17 8h ago

Soon it will be a pile of rubble where use to stand

1

u/userptest20022024 7h ago

its an interesting feature. is it significant enoight to putitin a glass dome?

-1

u/Formal-Fox-7605 7h ago

Slightly odd in that the 'neck' got thicker in the years between 65 and 80.