Geographia Polonica (1992) vol. 60

Inherited landforms in the crystalline areas of the Sudetes Mts. A case study from the Jelenia Góra Basin, SW Poland

Piotr Migoń

Geographia Polonica (1992) vol. 60, pp. 123-136 | Full text

Inselbergs are the most striking feature of the granite scenery of the Jelenia Góra Basin. They are either lithologically or fracture controlled. The former are built up of more resistant types of the granite (aplogranite, equigranular granite), while the latter reflect mostly the occurrence of domical structures. Therefore they could be considered as bornhardts. The properties of granite, which forms bornhardts indicate, that the selective deep weathering of Tertiary age following or accompanying by stripping was the most important morphogenetic process leading to the origin and exposure of the residual hills. After the exposure bornhardts were developed in changing morphoclimatic conditions. The formerly steep-sided, bare slopes were remodelled to the form of the boulder-controlled slopes due to strong physical disintegration of domes in the dry environments. The age of this process is probably Late Miocene. Both Pliocene and Pleistocene morphogenesis, which took place respectively in temperate and cold conditions, did not change the inselberg landscape considerably.

Piotr Migoń [piotr.migon@uwr.edu.pl], Institute of Geography and Regional Development University of Wrocław pl. Uniwersytecki 1, 50-137 Wrocław: Poland