What is the difference between a batholith and a pluton

A sill is a concordant intrusive sheet, meaning that a sill does not cut across preexisting rock beds. In contrast, a dike is a discordant intrusive sheet, which does cut across older rocks. Sills are fed by dikes, except in unusual locations where they form in nearly vertical beds attached directly to a magma source.

A batholith is the largest of the pluton types and by definition cover at least square kilometres. A stock is a small discordant pluton, shaped like a batholith but falling below the necessary square km in extent. The batholith is a large irregular mass of intrusive igneous rocks that forces themselves in surrounding strata, and laccolith is a mass of igneous or volcanic rock within strata. Batholith and laccoliths are part of igneous rocks and volcanic landforms.

Sills form as magma intrudes with enough force to overcome the weight of the rocks above. Lava flows will also typically show evidence of weathering on their upper surface, whereas sills, if still covered by country rock, typically do not. A batholith is formed when many plutons converge to form a huge expanse of granitic rock. One such batholith is the Sierra Nevada Batholith, which is a continuous granitic formation that makes up much of the Sierra Nevada in California.

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All this, and more, can be found sooner here, in our online version. What are the 5 categories of plutons? How could you distinguish between a sill exposed by erosion and a lava flow? What is the difference between a sill and a Laccolith? What is a rock dyke? How do you make a dyke? What is a dolerite dyke? What is the difference between dolerite and basalt? Is diorite and dolerite same? Is dolerite a porphyritic? Are porphyritic rocks intermediate? What Colour is dolerite? Is dolerite intermediate?

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