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Erosion-resistant mountain that stands alone
- This small hill has had an outsize influence on not just New Hampshire but also on the study of geology in general; the term “monadnock” is now used to mean any erosion-resistant mountain that stands alone, and some of Mount Monadnock’s more eye-catching rocks have been prominently featured in geology textbooks.
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Jun 8, 2023 · Inselberg or monadnock (pronounced /məˈnædnɒk/) in geology, geomorphology, or geography refers to an isolated, steep-sloped ridge, hill, small mountain, or knob sitting in a relatively flat to gently sloping surrounding area.
- Setting The Scene
- Continental Collision
- Mineral Evidence
- Folding
- Erosion
- Glaciers & Today
To begin with, let’s go way back in time. About 415 million years ago, the present-day East Coast of the United States was nonexistent. In fact, the North American continent, at this point named Laurentia, ended just East of Vermont; most of New Hampshire was under an ocean. Across the ocean was a small continent named Avalonia. As Avalonia’s land ...
After approximately 25 million years, Avalonia started to more closely approach the coast of Laurentia. This happened thanks to what is known as a subduction zone. Think of the earth’s surface as a jigsaw puzzle of large pieces of crust called tectonic plates. These tectonic plates do move around, and if two plates jam into each other, the denser o...
Two minerals present in Monadnock’s rocks are sillimanite and garnet. Both of these minerals form under specific heat and pressure conditions, and their presence tells scientists that Monadnock’s rocks were at one point during the Laurentia-Avalonia collision buried at least 12 kilometers (about 7.5 miles) below the surface of the Earth. Today, sil...
Not only were Monadnock’s former seafloor sediments buried deep below the surface of the earth and compressed into rock; the layers were also deformed during the Laurentia-Avalonia continental collision. Think about laying a ream of paper on a table and pushing the edges horizontally towards each other; the paper will soon buckle under the pressure...
Over a long time (and a long time geologically is an extremely long time in everyday terms), many things changed. All of the land in the world, including Avalonia and Laurentia, joined together to create a supercontinent named Pangea, and the large mountains overlying Monadnock’s rocks started to break down and erode away. As this erosion continued...
The most recent major geologic influence to shape Mount Monadnock happened only a few thousand years ago. During the Ice Age, large sheets of ice moved down from the North, slowly working their way up and over the mountain. As they progressed, they smoothed out a sort of ramp on the Northern slope of Monadnock. Looking at many of Monadnock’s bare b...
Jan 14, 2019 · The word inselberg translates to “Island Mountain” in German, and it was first used by Wilhelm Bornhardt in 1900, a geologist who found the landforms in southern Africa. The word monadnock is of Native American origin and it refers to a solitary hill rising above the flat area surrounding it.
monadnock, isolated hill of bedrock standing conspicuously above the general level of the surrounding area. Monadnocks are left as erosional remnants because of their more resistant rock composition; commonly they consist of quartzite or less jointed massive volcanic rocks.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
An inselberg or monadnock (/ məˈnædnɒk / mə-NAD-nok) is an isolated rock hill, knob, ridge, or small mountain that rises abruptly from a gently sloping or virtually level surrounding plain.
May 30, 2021 · A monadnock, also known as an inselberg, is an isolated, rocky ridge that is resistant to erosion and often surrounded by flat land. From Devil’s Tower in the Black Hills of Wyoming to...
Jun 16, 2013 · Monadnock or inselberg is an isolated rock hill, knob, ridge, or small mountain that rises abruptly from a gently sloping or virtually level surrounding plain.
