Inselbergs and Crystalline Monoliths

Isolated rock hills and domes of resistant crystalline rock, most often granite or gneiss, left standing above a surrounding plain or range by the differential weathering and erosion that stripped away the softer rock around them, following the inselberg (bornhardt) landform class of standard geomorphology. Includes granite domes shaped by exfoliation (Half Dome, Stawamus Chief), isolated monadnocks and residual peaks rising sharply from otherwise flat terrain (Uluru, Kata Tjuta, Spitzkoppe), and granite spires and towers sculpted by the same differential weathering at a steeper, more dramatic scale (Cerro Torre, El Capitan, Torres del Paine). Belongs here: any isolated hill, dome or spire whose defining origin is the survival of resistant crystalline rock after softer surrounding rock eroded away. Does not belong here: a formation shaped by active dissolution of soluble rock rather than the differential survival of resistant crystalline rock (Erosional and Karst Formations), or one built from layered sedimentary rock (Sedimentary and Stratigraphic Formations).