Batholith
Individual plutons are solidified from magma that traveled toward the surface from a zone of partial melting near the base of the Earth's crust.
Because the diapirs are liquified and very hot, they tend to rise through the surrounding native country rock, pushing it aside and partially melting it.
Some batholiths are mammoth, paralleling past and present subduction zones and other heat sources for hundreds of kilometers in continental crust.
This process has removed several tens of square kilometers of overlying rock in many areas, exposing the once deeply buried batholiths.
This form of weathering causes convex and relatively thin sheets of rock to slough off the exposed surfaces of batholiths (a process accelerated by frost wedging).
1. Laccolith
2. Small dike
3. Batholith
4. Dike
5. Sill
6. Volcanic neck and pipe
7. Lopolith
Note: As a general rule, in contrast to the active volcanic vent in the figure, these names refer to the fully cooled and usually millions-of-years-old rock formations, which are the result of the underground magmatic activity shown.
