Episodic exposure of inselbergs

Abstract

Flared slopes, breaks of slope, tafoni, and gently inclined platforms occur together in the piedmont zone of many inselbergs. Similar assemblages of forms at various levels above the present hill-plain junction are interpreted as former piedmont zones that have been abandoned as the inselbergs have been episodically exposed. Correlation of these old piedmont assemblages with paleosurface remnants of adjacent plains and uplands suggests that parts of the inselbergs are tentatively dated as Mesozoic, and many of the lower whalebacks are considered to be of Tertiary age. Most of the discussion is concerned with Eyre Peninsula in South Australia, a region that diastrophically is and has been relatively stable and that has suffered progressive erosion.