"That...
thing...
must be near as high as Mount Everest."
-
World War II
pilot, quoted by Tom Harrison, 1959
Mount
Kinabalu is split down the
middle by a 1 1/2 kilometer deep
gorge. The result is a "U" shape, with the two sides Kinabalu East and
Kinabalu West, stretching over a kilometer apart. This led people to
assume that the mountain was an old volcano. However, recent
evidence
proves differently. It reveals Mount Kinabalu
as the youngest granite
pluton in the world.
Magnificent view on the
summit plateau of
Kinabalu. Notice the rope?
In order to
understand the geology
of this mountain, we must go back 35
million years when Borneo
was
submerged beneath the sea. Marine
sediments began accumulating where Mount Kinabalu
now stands. Powerful
forces of pressure and temperature transformed the ocean mud into
layers of rocky sandstone and shale. These were uplifted to form a
range of mountains, now the Crocker Range which runs through East
Malaysia.
In the Pliocene
period, about 15
million years ago, a huge ball of molten rock was forced beneath the
Crocker Range. As this rock hardened it formed a granite mound, called
a pluton, deep beneath the earth's crust. Only a million years ago this
pluton was forced upward through the Crocker Range.
Donkey's Ear (left) and
St. John's (right)
peak, two out of seven major peaks of Kinabalu.
Jagged peaks of Kinabalu.
Flaking rocks on the
summit.
The process continues and Mount
Kinabalu, presently
4095 meters (13,435
feet), is still growing half a centimeter (1/4 inch) every year. The
sandstone and shale which once covered the granite have eroded away to
reveal the underlying rock.
As you climb the
mountain you can
see that the geological story does
not end here. During the Pleistocene glaciers covered the summit,
altering the topography still more. Glaciation ended only a few
thousand years ago and left its mark on the mountain. At 3,300 meters
(10,800 feet), particularly behind Paka Cave, you can see where the tip
of glacier pushed many different sized rocks before it, forming a
moraine. The jagged peaks of the summit remained above the glacier but
ice sheets smoothed over the remainder of this area.
Since then, the effects of chemical weathering,
heating,
and
cooling have also transformed the mountain's surface. The outer shell
of granite has split along weak points formed when molten granite
solidified next to the old layered rock. Water freezing and melting in
the rock cracks has helped to break the outer face down even more. The
tiled appearence of the summit results from thin layers of rock flaking
off.
The varied forces at work on the mountain have left a summit
of bare rock eroded into fantastic chasms and pinnacles. The stark
beauty and strength of the peak emanate from the force of its creation.
