A batholith is a large mass of intrusive igneous rock, larger than 100 square kilometers in area, that forms when magma cools deep within the Earth's crust. It develops as many individual plutons, bodies of rock solidified from magma rising from zones of partial melting near the base of the crust, cool and merge together between 5 and 30 kilometers underground into the single, continuous granitic mass recognized as a batholith.
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Source Wikipedia: Batholith
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Wikipedia: Batholith
WikipediaIn Discipline: Petrology, Lead section (in-discipline Petrology)
A batholith (from Ancient Greek βαθύς (bathús), meaning "deep", and λίθος (líthos), meaning "stone") is a large mass of intrusive igneous rock (also called plutonic rock), larger than 100 km2 (40 sq mi) in area, that forms from cooled magma deep in the Earth's crust.
Caused By: Erosion, Article text
These areas are exposed to the surface through the process of erosion accelerated by continental uplift acting over many tens of millions to hundreds of millions of years.
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