Monolith

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File:Uluru, helicopter view, cropped.jpg
Uluru, 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:Gávea.jpg
Gavea Rock, 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 {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, from the Ancient Greek word Template:Wikt-lang (Template:Transliteration), from Template:Wikt-lang (Template:Transliteration) meaning "one" or "single" and Template:Wikt-lang (Template:Transliteration) meaning "stone".

Geological monolithsEdit

Large, well-known monoliths include:

AfricaEdit

AntarcticaEdit

AsiaEdit

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

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AustraliaEdit

EuropeEdit

North AmericaEdit

United StatesEdit

File:Beacon rock.jpg
Beacon Rock, Washington, viewed from the west
File:El Capitan in 2010.jpg
El Capitan in Yosemite
File:Stawamus sharp.jpg
Stawamus Chief as seen from Valleycliffe neighborhood in Squamish, British Columbia

CanadaEdit

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MexicoEdit

  • La Peña de Bernal, Queretaro; claimed to be the world's third-largest monolith<ref name="Mexico Desconocido">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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

South AmericaEdit

Outside EarthEdit

Monumental monolithsEdit

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A structure which has been excavated as a unit from a surrounding matrix or outcropping of rock.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

See alsoEdit

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ReferencesEdit

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External linksEdit

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