Inselberg
Also called: Bornhardt · Topic: Landforms and their Evolution: Rivers, Groundwater, Glaciers, Waves and Wind · NCERT: Class 11, Ch 6 "Landforms and their Evolution"
Meaning
An inselberg ("island mountain" in German) is a steep-sided hill standing alone on a flat plain. It is what is left of a mountain that has almost worn away. In dry lands, the steep slopes of a mountain move back while keeping their angle. This is called parallel retreat of slopes. Meanwhile the pediment, a gently sloping rock floor at the foot, grows wider. In the end, only a hard core of rock is left as an inselberg. Merging pediments around it make a flat pediplain.
Example
Uluru, in the Northern Territory of Australia, is a famous inselberg. It is a huge sandstone rock that rises sharply from the flat desert around it.
Don't confuse with
- Monadnock: this is a leftover hill of hard rock on a peneplain, the near-flat land at the end of the Davis cycle in humid regions. An inselberg rises from a pediplain in dry lands.
Related concepts
- Aeolian processes
- Deflation
- Wind abrasion
- Sheet flood
- Erg, reg and hamada
- Pediment
- Parallel retreat of slopes
- Pediplain
- Playa
- Deflation hollow