Monolith

A monolith is a geological feature consisting of a single massive stone or rock, such as some mountains, or a single large piece of rock placed as, or within, a monument or building. Erosion usually exposes the geological formations, which are often made of very hard and solid igneous or metamorphic rock.

For other uses, see Monolith (disambiguation).
Uluru, Northern Territory, Australia, is often referred to as the biggest monolith, but that is generally avoided by geologists. While the surrounding rocks were eroded, the rock survived as sandstone strata making up the surviving Uluru 'monolith'.
Monolithos fortress on Rhodes, Greece
Landsat 7 image Brandberg Mountain, Namibia
Gavea Rock, a monolith next to the sea, near Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

In architecture, the term has considerable overlap with megalith, which is normally used for prehistory, and may be used in the contexts of rock-cut architecture that remains attached to solid rock, as in monolithic church, or for exceptionally large stones such as obelisks, statues, monolithic columns or large architraves, that may have been moved a considerable distance after quarrying. It may also be used of large glacial erratics moved by natural forces.

The word derives, via the Latin monolithus, from the Ancient Greek word μονόλιθος (monolithos), from μόνος ("one" or "single") and λίθος ("stone").

Geological monoliths

Large, well-known monoliths include:

Africa

Antarctica
  • Scullin monolith

Asia


Savandurga, India, from the northern side
Sangla Hill, Pakistan

Australia

Europe
Penyal d'Ifac, Spain

North America

United States
Beacon Rock, Washington, viewed from the west
El Capitan in Yosemite
Stawamus Chief as seen from Valleycliffe neighborhood in Squamish, British Columbia

Canada

Mexico

South America
El Peñón, monolith in Colombia, located in Antioquia

Extraterrestrial

Monumental monoliths

A structure which has been excavated as a unit from a surrounding matrix or outcropping of rock.[5]

gollark: =wolf
gollark: See, it's important to recognize that distinction.
gollark: What do you mean you "perceive" time as discrete? You mean you *arbitrarily think so*, or what?
gollark: Quite a lot.
gollark: > The Planck time is the unique combination of the gravitational constant G, the special-relativistic constant c, and the quantum constant ħ, to produce a constant with dimension of time. Because the Planck time comes from dimensional analysis, which ignores constant factors, there is no reason to believe that exactly one unit of Planck time has any special physical significance. Rather, the Planck time represents a rough time scale at which quantum gravitational effects are likely to become important. This essentially means that while smaller units of time can exist, they are so small their effect on our existence is negligible. The nature of those effects, and the exact time scale at which they would occur, would need to be derived from an actual theory of quantum gravity.

See also

References
  1. López Domínguez, Leonor (May 2001). "Villa de Bernal and its Magic Mountain". México Desconocido #291. Archived from the original on 2015-03-13.
  2. "Peña de Bernal - Bernal - Queretaro" (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 27 October 2006. Retrieved 25 November 2008.
  3. Raul Carrillo (2007). Northrop, Laura Cava; Dwight L. Curtis; Natalie Sherman (eds.). Let's Go Mexico: On a Budget. Macmillan. p. 370. ISBN 978-0-312-37452-5.
  4. Escobar Ledesma, Agustín (1999). Recetario del semidesierto de Querétaro: Acoyos, rejalgares y tantarrias. Conaculta. p. 75. ISBN 978-970-18-3910-2.
  5. "Glossary". Archived from the original on 2010-01-01.
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