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 southern and southern-central Africa, a similar formation of granite is known as a kopje from the Afrikaans word: koppie. In fact the word koppie is itself frequently employed in written South African English.
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 southwestern New Hampshire (USA), in Jaffrey. 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 US.
Formation
Volcanic or other processes may give rise to a body of
rock resistant to
erosion, inside a body of softer rock such as
limestone 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. If the monadnock is dome-shaped and formed from granite-gneiss, it can also be called a bornhardt.
Examples of monadnocks
Notable monadnocks include:United States
References
- Roger Brunet (dir.), Les mots de la géographie, Paris, Reclus-La Documentation française, 1993, ISBN 2110030364, article «monadnock», page 335.
See also
