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monolith

{{short description|Stone block made of one single piece; object made of one single rock piece}}

{{Other uses|Monolith (disambiguation)}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2024}}

File:012 035 Ile Mingan Niapiscau.jpg, Mingan Archipelago National Park Reserve, Canada]]

File:Uluru, helicopter view, cropped.jpg, Northern Territory, Australia, is often referred to as the biggest monolith. While the surrounding rocks were eroded, the rock survived as sandstone strata making up the surviving Uluru 'monolith'.]]

File:Monolithos 1.jpg on Rhodes, Greece]]

File:Brand hires trimmed.jpg image Brandberg Mountain, Namibia]]

File:Gávea.jpg, a monolith next to the sea, near Rio de Janeiro, Brazil]]

A monolith is a geological feature consisting of a single massive stone or rock, such as some mountains. Erosion usually exposes the geological formations, which are often made of very hard and solid igneous or metamorphic rock. Some monoliths are volcanic plugs, solidified lava filling the vent of an extinct volcano.

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 {{lang|la|monolithus}}, from the Ancient Greek word {{wikt-lang|grc|μονόλιθος}} ({{transliteration|grc|monólithos}}), from {{wikt-lang|grc|μόνος}} ({{transliteration|grc|mónos}}) meaning "one" or "single" and {{wikt-lang|grc|λίθος}} ({{transliteration|grc|líthos}}) meaning "stone".

Geological monoliths

Large, well-known monoliths include:

= Africa =

= Antarctica =

= Asia =

File:Savandurga.jpg, India, from the northern side]]

File:Sanglahill.JPG, Pakistan]]

= Australia =

= Europe =

File:Peñon de Ifach-2009.jpg, Spain]]

= North America =

== United States ==

File:Beacon rock.jpg, Washington, viewed from the west]]

File:El Capitan in 2010.jpg

File:stawamus sharp.jpg as seen from Valleycliffe neighborhood in Squamish, British Columbia]]

== Canada ==

  • Stawamus Chief, Squamish, British Columbia
  • Mingan Archipelago National Park Reserve, Quebec{{cite web |title=Mingan Archipelago National Park Reserve |url=https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/mingan-archipelago-national-park-reserve |publisher=The Canadian Encyclopedia |access-date=12 January 2024 |date=3 January 2015 |quote=Oddly shaped rock pillars sculpted by wind and sea create the unique islandscape of the natural reserve}}' {{cite web |title=Mingan Archipelago National Park Reserve |url=https://parks.canada.ca/pn-np/qc/mingan/nature/conservation/protection |publisher=Government of Canada |access-date=10 January 2024 |date=19 November 2022|quote=Several animal and plant species present on the islands of the Mingan Archipelago and the surrounding landscape are endangered or at risk}}' {{cite web |author1=Michael Melford photograph |title=Mingan Archipelago National Park Reserve |date=6 July 2011 |url=https://www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/article/mingan-archipelago-canada-park |publisher=National Geographic |access-date=10 January 2024|location=Quebec, Canada |quote=close to a thousand islands and islets sprinkled along 93 miles from east to west, 24,711 acres}}' {{cite web |author1=Zach Baranowski, photograph |title=The Mingan Archipelago |url=https://canadiangeographic.ca/articles/the-mingan-archipelago-a-land-shaped-by-time/ |publisher=Canadian Geographic |access-date=10 January 2024 |location=St Lawrence golf |quote=the shoreline at low tide reveals seemingly endless tide pools full of barnacles, green sea urchins, sea stars and other small invertebrates.}}

== Mexico ==

|last = López Domínguez

|first = Leonor

|title = Villa de Bernal and its Magic Mountain

|publisher = México Desconocido #291

|url = http://www.mexicodesconocido.com.mx/contenidos/home.html?p=nota&idNota=8897

|date = May 2001

|url-status = dead

|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150313212946/http://www.mexicodesconocido.com.mx/bernal-pueblos-magicos-de-mexico.html

|archive-date = 13 March 2015

}}{{cite web |url=http://www.de-paseo.com/Bernal/Bernal.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061027040930/http://www.de-paseo.com/Bernal/Bernal.htm |url-status=dead |archive-date=27 October 2006 |title=Peña de Bernal - Bernal - Queretaro |access-date=25 November 2008 |language=es }}{{cite book |last=Carrillo |first=Raul |title=Let's Go Mexico: On a Budget |publisher=Macmillan |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-312-37452-5 |editor-last=Northrop |editor-first=Laura Cava |page=370 |editor2=Curtis |editor-first2=Dwight L. |editor3=Sherman |editor-first3=Natalie}}{{cite book |title=Recetario del semidesierto de Querétaro: Acoyos, rejalgares y tantarrias |last=Escobar Ledesma |first=Agustín |year=1999 |publisher=Conaculta |isbn=978-970-18-3910-2 |page=75 }}

  • Las Piedrotas, near the town of Tapalpa, Jalisco.

= South America =

File:Elpenolantioquia.JPG, monolith in Colombia, located in Antioquia]]

= Outside Earth =

Monumental monoliths

{{See also|list of ancient architectural records#Monoliths|l1=list of ancient architectural records|list of ancient monoliths|list of largest monoliths in the world}}

A structure which has been excavated as a unit from a surrounding matrix or outcropping of rock.{{cite web

|url = http://www.art-and-archaeology.com/india/glossary1.html#monolith

|title = Glossary

|url-status = dead

|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20100101092351/http://art-and-archaeology.com/india/glossary1.html#monolith

|archive-date = 1 January 2010

}}

See also

{{portal|Geography}}

{{div col}}

  • List of individual rocks
  • {{annotated link|Granite dome}}
  • {{annotated link|Bornhardt}}
  • {{annotated link|Inselberg}}
  • {{annotated link|Butte}}
  • {{annotated link|Kigilyakh}}
  • {{annotated link|Megalith}}
  • {{annotated link|Menhir}}
  • {{annotated link|Monadnock}} (or inselberg)
  • {{annotated link|Monolith (Space Odyssey)}}
  • {{annotated link|Monolithic architecture}}
  • {{annotated link|Monolithos (Rhodes), Greece|Monolithos (Rhodes)}}
  • {{annotated link|Utah Monolith}}

{{end div col}}

References

{{Reflist}}

External links

{{Commons category|Monoliths}}

  • Regarding Uluru/Ayers Rock and earlier representations of it as the largest monolith: [https://web.archive.org/web/20070206021953/http://www.ga.gov.au/education/facts/landforms/uluru.htm GA.gov.au], [http://www.abc.net.au/science/k2/moments/s1469595.htm ABC.net.au], [https://web.archive.org/web/20070205024718/http://www.wayoutback.com.au/uluru-geology.php Wayoutback.com.au]

{{Authority control}}

Category:Sandstone

Category:Geomorphology

Category:Geography terminology