Monadnock
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- For the mountain in New Hampshire, see Mount Monadnock.
A monadnock or inselberg is an isolated hill, knob, ridge, or small mountain that rises abruptly from a gently sloping or virtually level surrounding plain. In South Africa a similar formation of granite boulders is known as a kopje.
Monadnock is an originally Native American term for an isolated hill or a lone mountain that has risen above the surrounding area, typically by surviving erosion. The name was taken from Mount Monadnock in New Hampshire (USA). The name is thought to derive from the Abenaki language, from either menonadenak ("smooth mountain") or menadena ("isolated mountain").
The word "inselberg" is German for "island mountain"; the name was originally coined to describe the abundant such features found in southern Africa. The term monadnock is more usually used in the USA.
Formation
Inselbergs are typically, though not only, formed in tropical areas. Volcanic or other processes may give rise to a body of rock resistant to erosion, inside a body of softer rock such as sandstone which is more susceptible to erosion. When the less resistant rock is eroded away to form a plain, the more resistant rock is left behind as an isolated mountain.Examples of monadnocks
Notable inselbergs include:- Suilven in Scotland
- Sugarloaf Mountain in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
- Uluru (Ayers Rock) and Kata Tjuta in Australia
- Mount Monadnock, New Hampshire, USA
- Stone Mountain, Georgia, USA
- Mount Ascutney, Vermont, USA
- Mount Katahdin, Maine, USA
- Panola Mountain, Georgia, USA
- Pilot Mountain, North Carolina, USA
- Rib Mountain, Wisconsin, USA
- Enchanted Rock, Texas, USA
- Mulanje Massif in Malawi.
- Sugarloaf Mountain in Maryland, USA
- Gaff Topsails in Newfoundland, Canada.
See also
- USS Monadnock (1883) was a United States Navy ironclad warship.
- Monadnock Building (in Chicago, the tallest unreinforced brick buildings in the world)
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