Be. Leake et J. Cobbing, TRANSIENT AND LONG-TERM CORRESPONDENCE OF EROSION LEVEL AND THE TOPS OF GRANITE PLUTONS, Scottish journal of geology, 29, 1993, pp. 177-182
Granites, used in the sense of granitoids, are characteristically conf
ined to continental crust and the bottoms of granite plutons are rarel
y exposed. Indeed the roots of a major granite batholith have yet to b
e unequivocally described as far as we know. In contrast the tops and
upper parts of numerous granite plutons have been described as they co
mmonly lie near to the present level of erosion of the continental cru
st. Some regions have so many exposed tops that it is unlikely to be a
chance coincidence of erosion level and granite exposure. Such situat
ions are of two general types (1) Long Term. Stabilized crust in which
the tops of plutons oscillate about +/-3 km of sea-level for hundreds
of millions of years e.g. the 400-470 Ma Caledonide plutons of N. Bri
tain and Ireland (2) Transient. Unstabilized crust in which relatively
young granites form topographically high plutons in which erosion mig
ht cut down into some of the plutons within tens of millions of years
e.g. the Cretaceous and Tertiary plutons of Peru and the Sierra Nevada
, Western USA. At least some of the latter group must eventually pass
into the former group possibly by structural lowering e.g. due to crus
tal extension. The main control appears to be isostatic stabilization
accompanying and following plutonism, combined with the final consolid
ation of granites in a narrow layer below the prevailing topography be
cause of termination of crystallization by a topographically related w
ater table.