Stone Mountain is a quartz monzonite dome monadnock about 15 miles east of Atlanta, Georgia, ranging in composition from quartz monzonite to granite and granodiorite. It formed as a pluton, an igneous intrusion created when magma upwelled within the crust and solidified underground roughly 300 to 350 million years ago during the Carboniferous period, as part of the Appalachian Mountains' formation, and later erosion stripped away the surrounding, less resistant rock to expose it. The summit reaches 1,686 feet (514 meters) above sea level with a prominence of 825 feet (251 meters), the mountain measures more than 5 miles in circumference at its base, and the underground pluton extends about 9 miles into neighboring Gwinnett County. The mountain's north face carries the largest high-relief sculpture in the world, a Confederate Memorial Carving completed in 1972 depicting three Confederate leaders. Stone Mountain Park, which opened April 14, 1965 and is owned and operated by the state of Georgia, draws visitors to the summit by a walk-up trail or aerial tram. This entity documents Stone Mountain specifically as a geological formation, a quartz monzonite pluton exposed by erosion east of Atlanta.
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