BATHOLITHS - F4 GEOGRAPHY

BatholithS

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Photos

What are Batholiths?

Index

Video

Examples

Formation of landforms

Intrusivity or extrusivity?

What are batholiths?

A batholith is an enormous mass of igneous rock formed when magma collects and cools deep within the earth's crust without ever reaching the surface. Batholiths are typically larger than 40 square miles.

INTRUSIVitY OR EXTRUSIVITY?

A batholith is a large mass of intrusive rocks, also known as plutonic rock. Magma has been introduced into previously existing rock layers that is why it is intrusive.

THE FORMATION OF A BATHOLITH'S LANDFORM

A batholith is never a single structure, but rather a collection of plutons. A pluton is an intrusive igneous rock body. Initially, buoyant magma begins to rise to the surface and gain passage into cracks left behind by faulting activities or simply melting down the surrounding native rocks. Because of the great distance to the surface, this magma loses much of its heat and begins to cool slowly, eventually solidifying underground. When many plutons converge, they form a batholith, a massive expanse of rock. Batholiths have the shape of a dome and are hidden underground until the overlying layer erodes and exposes them to the surface. Some batholiths can stretch for over 1,000 miles. When a batholith is exposed to the surface, the pressure difference causes it to exfoliate by rapid expansion over time. This produces clean, rounded rock surfaces that can be seen for miles.

Batholiths usually spread over hundreds of kilometers on the continental crust. One example of this is the Sierra Nevada batholith. The Sierra Nevada batholith covers most of California. Alot of the largest batholiths are often found in North America rockies and usually reach to the point of 6000 feet high. However the batholith in Mount Kilimanjaro is 6,067 feet making it 67 feet higher.

Examples

Dream through the Sierra Nevada mountains, exploring snow covered forests and culminating at Lake Tahoe's beautiful northern shores.

Sierra Nevada

BIBLIOGRAPHY

The Caribbean Environment for CXC Geography by Mark Wilson textbook

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batholith

https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/what-is-a-batholith.html

Group Participants: Sasha Pysadee, Sydney Persad, Saadhikaa Shah & Nadira Babwah

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