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Garden Of Gods Visitors Center
Garden of the Gods and Pikes Peak, Colorado Springs --- The red Lyons Formation sandstone layers were uplifted vertically when the Rocky Mountains were uplifted. The 14,000 foot Pikes Peak in the background is a lone Precambrian granite intrusion.
Mt Sopris
Mt. Sopris, Carbondale --- The granitic magma that solidified to form this mountain was intruded below sedimentary layers that have since been eroded away on top, but still remain tilted upwards along the edges.
El Peñón de Guatapé
El Peñón de Guatapé is a granitic monolith that rises about 200 m above the surrounding landscape, in the Antioquia region of NW Colombia. These isolated landforms are also known as "inselbergs" and are typical of granitic rocks in tropical regions.
Nonconformity
A "nonconformity" is a type of discontinuity surface where sedimentary rocks lie above crystalline rocks. The dashed line in the picture marks a nonconformity between the Mesoproterozoic Pikes Peak Granite (bottom/right) and the Pennsylvanian conglomerates of the Fountain Formation (top/left), near Denver, CO. The contact in this outcrop (near Red Rocks Amphitheater) is marked by a plaque.
Principle of inclusion
One of the basic principles of stratigraphy is the "principle of inclusion." The principle states that if fragments of a rock unit are found included in a second rock unit, the second unit is younger than the first. In this picture, fragments of the Mesoproterozoic Pikes Peak granite (like the clast on which the pencil is resting) are included in a conglomerate layer of the Pennsylvanian Fountain Formation, CO. We infer that the granite must have existed as a solid rock body that was broken and eroded…
Precambrian granites
Mwanza, located along the southern shore of Lake Victoria, is Tanzania’s second largest city and one of the fastest growing cities in the world. It is nicknamed “the Rock City” due to the numerous hills covered with granite boulders that stretch out into the lake, creating a unique landscape. Many of the city’s houses are built around the boulders and some use granite from the rocks. The granites of Mwanza are Precambrian and belong to the stable continental crust of the Tanzania Craton. Photo by…