Monadnock - Definitions

Definitions

Monadnock is an originally Native American term for an isolated hill or a lone mountain that has risen above the surrounding area, typically by surviving erosion. Geologists took the name from Mount Monadnock in southwestern New Hampshire. It is thought to derive from the Abenaki language, from either menonadenak ("smooth mountain") or menadena ("isolated mountain"). In this context, monadnock is used to describe a mountain that rises from an area of relatively flat and/or lower terrain. For instance, Mount Monadnock rises 2,000 feet (610 m) above its surrounding terrain and stands, at 3,165 feet (965 m), nearly 1,000 feet (300 m) higher than any mountain peak within 30 miles (48 km).

The word inselberg is German for "island mountain"; the name was originally coined by geologist Wilhelm Bornhardt (1864–1946) in 1900 to describe the abundance of such features found in southern Africa. At this point, the term applied only to arid landscape features. However, the term inselberg has since been used to describe a broader geography and range of rock features, leading to confusion about the precise definition of the term. In a 1973 study examining the use of the term, one researcher found that the term had been used for features in savannah climates 40% of the time; arid or semi-arid climates 32% of the time, humid-subtropical and arctic 12% of the time; and 6% each for humid-tropical and Mediterranean climates. As recently as 1972, the term has been defined as "steep-sided isolated hills rising relatively abruptly above gently sloping ground." This definition includes such features as buttes; conical hills with rectilinear sides typically found in arid regions; regolith-covered concave-convex hills; rock crests over regolith slopes; rock domes with near vertical sides; tors (koppies) formed of large boulders but with solid rock cores. Thus, the term monadnock and inselberg may not perfectly match.