At first I thought from the headline they were talking about petrified forests, but no. The stone forests (a sea of trees) are the pointy bits on mountains – in China and Madagascar for example. How they were created is the subject of another experiment, of a sort. They have puzzled geologists for some time. The research showed that flowing water carves ultra sharp spikes in land forms. Simulation is involved of course, so we may assume not every possibility was included in the experiment, such as the sort of landscape carving featured on Electric Universe videos. The study, they continue, also shows how sharply pointed rock spiers in karst formations occur, a topography formed by the dissolution of limestones. How does the water get to carve the mountains? Is this the big unknown. We now have a mechanism to show how the spikes were formed (by water) but not how the water, or how much water would have been involved, came about. Is this ocean sloshing perhaps. Sloshing over mountains is difficult to perceive. A few images of the spiky bits would have been helpful – but no doubt they are out there somewhere on the internet. One would have thought water action would have involved a regular dousing of the mountains and not simply a single wave of water. In solving a mystery they have created another mystery. See www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.2001524117
Do the chinese pointy spikes occur near loess formations. Although loess is usually attributed to winds on a tundra like landscape there is an alternative theory that it is silt created by water – lots of water.