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Etymology
Inselberg
Monadnock
Geology
Geological and geographical patterns

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"Monadnock" redirects here. For other uses, see Monadnock (disambiguation).

For the type of water castle, see Inselburg.

An inselberg or monadnock (/mәˈnædnɒk/ mә­NAD­nok) is an

isolated rock hill, knob, ridge, or small mountain that rises abruptly
from a gently sloping or virtually level surrounding plain. In
Southern Africa a similar formation of granite[citation needed] is known
as a koppie, an Afrikaans word ("little head") from the Dutch
diminutive word kopje.[1] If the inselberg is dome­shaped and
formed from granite or gneiss, it can also be called a bornhardt, Pietra di Bismantova in the
though not all bornhardts are inselbergs. An inselberg results Apennines, Italy

when a body of rock resistant to erosion, such as granite,

occurring within a body of softer rocks, is exposed by differential erosion and lowering of the surrounding
landscape.[2]

Etymology [edit]

Inselberg [edit]

The word inselberg is a loan word from German, and means "island mountain". The term was coined in
1900 by geologist Wilhelm Bornhardt (1864–1946) to describe the abundance of such features found in
eastern Africa.[3] At that time, the term applied only to arid landscape features. However, it has since been
used to describe a broader geography and range of rock features, leading to confusion about the precise
definition of the term.

In a 1973 study examining the use of the term, one researcher found that the term had been used for
features in savannah climates 40% of the time, arid or semi­arid climates 32% of the time, humid­
subtropical and arctic 12% of the time, and 6% each in humid­tropical and Mediterranean climates. A 1972
paper defined inselbergs as "steep­sided isolated hills rising relatively abruptly above gently sloping
paper defined inselbergs as "steep­sided isolated hills rising relatively abruptly above gently sloping
ground". This definition includes such features as buttes; conical hills with rectilinear sides typically found
in arid regions; regolith­covered concave­convex hills; rock crests over regolith slopes; rock domes with
near vertical sides; tors (koppies) formed of large boulders but with solid rock cores. Thus, the terms
monadnock and inselberg may not perfectly match,[4] though some authors have explicitly argued these
terms are completely synonymous.[5]

Monadnock [edit]

Monadnock is derived from a Abenaki term for an isolated hill or a lone mountain that stands above the
surrounding area, typically by surviving erosion. Geologists took the name from Mount Monadnock in
southwestern New Hampshire.[6] It is thought to derive from either menonadenak (transl. smooth
mountain) or menadena (transl. isolated mountain).[7] In this context, monadnock is used to describe a
mountain that rises from an area of relatively flat and/or lower terrain. For instance, Mount Monadnock
rises 610 metres (2,000 ft) above its surrounding terrain and stands, at 965 m (3,165 ft), nearly 300 m
(1,000 ft) higher than any mountain peak within 48 km (30 mi).[8]

Geology [edit]

Geological and geographical patterns [edit]

Inselbergs are common in eroded and weathered shields.[9] The

presence of an inselberg typically indicates the existence of a
nearby plateau or highland, or their remnants. This is especially
the case for inselbergs composed of sedimentary rock, which will
display the same stratigraphic units as this nearby plateau.
However once exposed, the inselbergs are destroyed by marginal
collapse of joint blocks and exfoliation sheets. This process leaves
behind tors perched at their summits and, over time, a talus­
bordered residual known as a castle koppie appears.[10][11] By this The Spitzkoppe of Namibia, a 670­
metre (2,200 ft) granite peak formed by
association various inselberg fields in Africa and South America early Cretaceous rifting and
are assumed to be the vestiges of eroded etchplains.[12][13] magmatism.

Clusters of inselbergs, called inselberg fields and inselberg plains,

occur in various parts of the world, including Tanzania,[14] the Anti­Atlas of Morocco,[12] Northeast Brazil,[15]
Namibia,[16] the interior of Angola,[17] and the northern portions of Finland[18][19] and Sweden.[20][A]

The classification of Anthony Young (1969) distinguishes six types of inselbergs; buttes, conical hills,
convex­concave hills, rock crest over regolith­covered slope, rock dome (sugarloaf) and kopje or tor.[22]

The types of rock of which inselbergs are made of include granite, gneiss and gabbro.[B]

Origin and development [edit]

This section needs expansion.

You can help by adding to it.
(October 2022)

Summarizing the understanding on the origin of inselbergs in 1974, geomorphologist Michael Thomas
writes "Hypotheses for the development of inselbergs have been advanced, refuted and reiterated over a
period of more than seventy years."[24] 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. The strength of the uneroded rock is often attributed to the tightness of its jointing.[25][C]

Inselbergs can be reshaped by ice sheets much the same way as roches moutonnées. In northern
Sweden, examples of this type of inselberg are called flyggbergs.[27]: 326–327 [28]

Ecology [edit]

The inselbergs of Eastern Africa tend to be a refuge for life in the

Serengeti of Tanzania and in the Masai Mara of Kenya. Where the
soil is too thin or hard to support tree life in large areas, soil
trapped by inselbergs can be dense with trees while the
surrounding land contains only short grass. Hollows in the rock
surfaces provide catchments for rainwater. Many animals have
adapted to the use of inselbergs, including the lion, the hyrax, and
an abundance of bird and reptile life. Lion atop a koppie in the Serengeti,
northern Tanzania

Gallery [edit]

Mount Mulanje, a large inselberg Mount Ledang, a large inselberg Mount Madai, Sabah, Malaysia
in southeastern Malawi in the state of Johor, Malaysia

Houtkop, a 170­metre (560 ft) A conical sandstone koppie in An inselberg in the rainforest of
outcrop of Drakensberg basalt in the Free State, South Africa Suriname
the Free State, South Africa
 A duricrust inselberg near Dori,
Burkina Faso

Uluru, an 863­metre (2,831 ft) sandstone formation in Australia's Northern Territory

Devils Tower, an archetypal Vinyard Knob (high point 960') in the

example of an inselberg in central portion of the Knobs Region
Wyoming, US of Kentucky

Cono de Arita, a conical sandstone Mount Monadnock in New Peña de Bernal

inselberg in the middle of Salar de Hampshire, US in Bernal,
Arizaro, Argentina Querétaro,
México

Rocca di Cavour, Piedmont, Inselberg in the state of Bahia, An inselberg in Western Sahara
 Italy northeastern Brazil

Peñón de Guatapé, Antioquia Department, Colombia

See also [edit]

Bornhardt – A large dome­shaped, steep­sided, bald rock

Caprock – Rock overlying a less resistant type
Dissected plateau – Plateaus area that has been severely eroded so that the relief is sharp
List of inselbergs
Mesa – Elevated area of land with a flat top and sides
Mogote – Steep­sided residual hill of limestone, marble, or dolomite on a flat plain
Sky island – Geographic or environmental feature
Tableland
Tuya – Flat­topped, steep­sided volcano formed when lava erupts through a thick glacier or ice sheet

Notes [edit]
A. ^ Albeit its not the usual way of describing it the strandflat of Norway was held by Julius Büdel to be an
etchplain with inselbergs. [21]
B. ^ Cliff Ollier has noted that in Uganda inselbergs are commonly made of granite rock, sometimes of gneiss and
never of amphibolite or volcanic rock. [2] According to Ollier protuding quartzite hills tend to form ridges rather
than "true inselbergs". [2] Dundret in northern Sweden is made of gabbro. [23]
C. ^ Twidale (1981) "Granitic Inselbergs: …"[26] is a review that follows the Willis 1936 works and Twidale 1971, a
series of papers available in 1970 and rock weathering strata and structure reviewed U.C.W. well worth reading
as they show by theory and materials the importance of preceding structures, internal solution, subsurface
weathering, slips, exfoliation, basal weathering (Young, A. Soils), biological effects, plants, solutes and salt
plain catena associations, possible lake rise, but mainly the stripping of rock mass leaving resistant units,
sometimes volcanic plugs.

References [edit]
1. ^ Webster's New Explorer Dictionary of Word Origins (2004). Federal Street Press: New York.
2. ^ a b c Ollier, C.D. (1960). "The Inselbergs of Uganda". Zeitschrift für Geomorphologie. 4 (1): 43–52.
3. ^ Holmes, Arthur (1978). Holmes Principles of Physical Geology. Nelson. ISBN 978­0­17­771299­9. [page needed]
4. ^ Gerrard, John (1988). Rocks and Landforms Routledge: Florence, Kentucky.
5. ^ King, Lester C. (1953). "Canons of landscape evolution". Geological Society of America Bulletin. 64 (7): 721.
doi:10.1130/0016­7606(1953)64[721:COLE]2.0.CO;2 .
6. ^ Raymo, Chet and Raymo, Maureen E. (1989) Written in Stone: A Geologic History of the Northeastern United
States. Globe Pequot, Chester, Connecticut.
 7. ^ "Vermont Soils with Names of American Indian Origin Archived 2009­03­20 at the Wayback Machine"
United States Department of Agriculture, Natural Resources Conservation Service. Retrieved January 6, 2008.
8. ^ Baldwin, Henry I. (1989). Monadnock Guide 4th edition. Concord, New Hampshire: Society for the Protection
of New Hampshire Forests.
9. ^ Nenonen, Keijo; Johansson, Peter; Sallasmaa, Olli; Sarala, Pertti; Palmu, Jukka­Pekka (2018). "The inselberg
landscape in Finnish Lapland: a morphological study based on the LiDAR data interpretation" . Bulletin of the
Geological Society of Finland. 90 (2): 239–256. doi:10.17741/bgsf/90.2.008 .
10. ^ "Summary: Inselbergs/Hills/Knobs" . Desert Processes Working Group. Knowledge Sciences, Inc. Retrieved
6 January 2008.
11. ^ Easterbrook, Don J. (1999). "Chapter Three: Weathering". Surface Processes and Landforms (2nd ed.). Upper
Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
12. ^ a b Guillocheau, François; Simon, Brendan; Baby, Guillaume; Bessin, Paul; Robin, Cécile; Dauteuil, Olivier
(2017). "Planation surfaces as a record of mantle dynamics: The case example of Africa" (PDF). Gondwana
Research. 53: 82. Bibcode:2018GondR..53...82G . doi:10.1016/j.gr.2017.05.015 .
13. ^ García, Carolina; Hermelin, Michel (2016). "Inselbergs Near Medellín". In Hermelin, Michel (ed.). Landscapes
and Landforms of Colombia. Springer. p. 219. ISBN 978­3­319­11800­0.
14. ^ Sundborg, Å.; Rapp, A. (1986). Erosion and Sedimentation by Water: Problems and prospects. Ambio.
pp. 215–225.
15. ^ Maia, Rúbson Pinheiro; Frêgo Bezerra, Francisco Hilário; Leite Nascimento, Marcos Antônio; Sampaio de
Castro, Henrique; de Andrade Meireles, Antônio Jeovah; Rothis, Luis Martin (2015). "Geomorfologia do Campo
de Inselbergues de Quixadá, nordeste do Brasil" [Geomorphology of inselbergs field of Quixadá, Northeast
Brazil]. Revista Brasileira de Geomorfologia (in Portuguese). 16 (2). doi:10.20502/rbg.v16i2.651 .
16. ^ "Production of an agro­ecological zones map of Namibia (first approximation)" (PDF). nbri.org.na.
17. ^ "Development of a soil and terrain map/database for Angola" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on
2021­03­09. Retrieved 2016­07­11.
18. ^ Kaitanen, Veijo (1 February 1985). "Problems concerning the origin of inselbergs in Finnish Lapland" .
Fennia. 163 (2): 359–364.
19. ^ Ebert, K.; Hall, A.; Hättestrand, C.; Alm, G. (2009). "Multi­phase development of a glaciated inselberg
landscape". Geomorphology. 115 (1): 56–66. doi:10.1016/j.geomorph.2009.09.030 .
20. ^ Rudberg, S. (1988). "Gross morphology of Fennoskandia: Six complementary ways of explanation".
Geografiska Annaler. A. Physical Geography. 70 (3): 135–167. doi:10.2307/521068 . JSTOR 521068 .
21. ^ Olesen, Odleiv; Kierulf, Halfdan Pascal; Brönner, Marco; Dalsegg, Einar; Fredin, Ola; Solbakk, Terje (2013).
"Deep weathering, neotectonics and strandflat formation in Nordland, northern Norway" (PDF). Norwegian
Journal of Geology. 93: 189–213. S2CID 226225485 .
22. ^ Young, Anthony (1969). Clayton, K.M. (ed.). Slopes. Edinburgh: Oliver & Boyd. p. 209.
23. ^ Ebert, Karin; Hall, Adrian M.; Hättestrand, Clas (2012). "Pre­glacial landforms on a glaciated shield: The
inselberg plains of northern Sweden". Norwegian Journal of Geology. 92: 1–17.
24. ^ Thomas, Michael (1974). Tropical Geomorphology. The Macmillan Press Ldt. p. 136.
25. ^ "A Dictionary of Ecology" (2004). Encyclopedia.com. Retrieved November 28, 2009
26. ^ Twidale, C.R. (1981). "Granitic Inselbergs: Domed, Block­Strewn and Castellated". The Geographical Journal.
147 (1): 54–71. doi:10.2307/633409 . JSTOR 633409 .
27. ^ Benn, Douglas; Evans, David (1998). Glaciers & Glaciation (1st ed.). London, UK: Arnold. ISBN 978­0­340­
58431­6.
28. ^ Lidmar­Bergström, Karna; Olvmo, Mats (2015). Plains, Steps, Hilly Relief and Valleys in Northern Sweden­­
review, Interpretations and Implications for Conclusions on Phanerozoic Tectonics (PDF). Sveriges
geologiska undersökning (Geological Survey of Sweden). p. 13. ISBN 978­91­7403­308­3. OCLC 943395499 .
Retrieved 29 June 2016.

External links [edit]

Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Monadnock" . Encyclopædia Wikimedia Commons has

Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. media related to Inselbergs.
 Authority control databases
International FAST

National France ꞏ BnF data ꞏ Germany ꞏ Israel ꞏ United States

Category: Inselbergs

This page was last edited on 30 November 2023, at 14:09 (UTC).

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