Geological Evolution of East Lake, Wuhan

East Lake, the second largest city lake in China and even in the World, bears the historical context and spiritual connotation of Wuhan’s urban development. This paper analyzes the genesis and evolution of East Lake from the aspects of geological structure, climate evolution, interaction between river and lake, human activities. It is considered that the East Lake is both a “tectonic lake” and a “barrier lake”. Its formation is affected by the multi-stage tectonic movement. The folding deformation, basin-range structure, sag basin and Dabie Mountain uplift caused by the Indosinian movement to Himalayan movement provided the geological foundation for East Lake. Closely related to the Yangtze River, the geological evolution of the East Lake is the result of the interaction between the Yangtze River and lakes in the process of vertical crust uplift and fall, and the climatic and environmental changes since the Middle Pleistocene, which forms the current geometric form along with human engineering activities. Over 30 years remote sensing images show that human engineering activities have been geological forces that cannot be ignored, with stronger and faster influence on the development and evolution of the East Lake than natural geological forces. The only choice for human beings to develop, utilize and protect the East Lake is following the concept of “community of life for mountains, rivers, forests, fields, lakes and grass”.