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Geology Tour Road:

Stop #5

Rock Piles



The monzogranite forming these rock piles was once a molten mass which was forced upward, or intruded, into an older layer of Pinto Gneiss. The molten mass (magma), cooled about 15 miles below the surface and crystalized to form solid rock. The overlying gneiss has been stripped away by erosion over the years, exposing the monzogranite outcrops. Within the monzogranite, areas with wider spaced joint cracks are more resistant to erosion, and weather more slowly than the cracks that are closer together. This type of wear results in the high rock piles called inselbergs. In some piles the joint crack systems are well defined and obvious, while in other piles smaller boulders have fallen into disordered piles obscuring the underlying joint pattern.

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GLOSSARY > erosion, gneiss, magma

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These items are historical in scope and are intended for educational purposes only; they are not meant as an aid for travel planning.
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Intro:: Nature:: Map:: Parks:: Points of Interest:: Ghosts & Gold:: Communities:: Roads & Trails:: People & History:: BLOG:: PDF:: Weather:: :?:: glossary
Country Life Realty
Wrightwood, Ca.
Mountain Hardware
Wrightwood, Ca.
Canyon Cartography
DesertLink
Links to Desert Museums

Grizzly Cafe
Family Dining


Custom Search

AbeBooks
Abraxas Engineering
privacy
These items are historical in scope and are intended for educational purposes only; they are not meant as an aid for travel planning.
Copyright ©Walter Feller. 1995-2023 - All rights reserved.