Monadnock
Topic: Landforms and their Evolution: Rivers, Groundwater, Glaciers, Waves and Wind · NCERT: Class 11, Ch 6 "Landforms and their Evolution"
Meaning
A monadnock is a lone hill of hard rock. It stands above a peneplain, an almost flat plain. It is left at the end of Davis's cycle of erosion, when rivers have worn down all the land around it over a very long time. It survives because its rock resists erosion better than the rock around it.
Example
The landform is named after Mount Monadnock in New Hampshire, USA. It rises well above the worn-down country around it.
Don't confuse with
- Inselberg: an inselberg is also a leftover hill, but it is found in dry lands. It is left behind when slopes retreat and pediments, the rocky floors at the foot of mountains, grow. An example is Uluru in Australia. A monadnock is left behind by river erosion in humid lands.
Related concepts
- Landform
- Cycle of erosion
- Youth stage
- Mature stage
- Old stage
- Peneplain
- Sheet erosion
- Lateral and vertical erosion