Miocene Rocks on Tiaoyutai Island
About 150 kilometers north-northeast off the main island of Taiwan lies the Tiaoyutai island of
Ilan-hsien. This island is nearly four square kilometers in areal extent, 3.5 kilometers long and 1.5
kilometers wide. The southern side is marked by sharp cliffs, whereas a gentle dip slope descends to the
north.
The northern coast is characterized by an arcuate shoreline. The highest peak on the island rises to 363
meters above sea level in the southwestern part. This island is composed of sandstone in beds several meters
thick, interbedded with thin beds of claystone. The sandstone is white to grayish white and weathers to
yellowish brown. Grain size is fine to coarse. Part of the sandstone is conglomeratic, with rounded to
subrounded pebbles that reach a maximum diameter of 20 centimeters. The chief components in the sandstone
are quartz, feldspar, rock fragments, and secondary clay minerals. Several coaly fine-grained sandstone beds
about 10 to 20 centimeters thick are intercalated in the lower part and contain 3 to 4 layers of coaly
shale. The coal is only several millimeters to 2 centimeters thick and discontinuous. The exposed thickness
of the sandstone formation is about 150 meters. Beds strike east-west or east-northeast and dip to the north
at 15o to
25o
defining a broad arc convex slightly toward the north. No fossils have yet been found. On the
basis of lithology and other characters, the sandstone formation on Tiaoyutai may be correlated with the
Nankang Formation or the Shihti Formation of middle Miocene age on the main island of Taiwan. It is thus
ascribed to the Juifang Group in this geologic map. However, the conglomeratic sandstone on Tiaoyutai has
not been found in the Juifang Group on the main island of Taiwan.