Carolina Environmental Diversity Explorations
Lonely mountains · By Dirk Frankenberg
Composition of Pilot Mountain
Figure 5. A closer look at Pilot Mountain shows horizontal layers of rock called bedding planes. (Photograph by the author. More about the photograph)
When viewed up close, the pinnacle of Pilot Mountain is seen to be made of almost horizontal layers of rock. This rock is quartzite, and the horizontal lines between the layers are bedding planes that mark the tops of the individual quartzite beds.
