File:Exfoliation dome (Looking Glass Rock, Blue Ridge, North Carolina, USA) 1.jpg

English: The Appalachian Mountains of eastern America consist of three physiographic provinces: the Valley & Ridge, the Blue Ridge, and the Piedmont. A couple of American national parks have been established in the most scenic stretches of the Blue Ridge: Great Smoky Mountains and Shenandoah. The Blue Ridge is mostly composed of Precambrian basement rocks (igneous & metamorphics). The mountains of the Blue Ridge are generally rounded and not very tall. This is unlike the tall, mostly sharp-peaked mountains of western America's Cordillera, the Andes of South America, the Alps of Europe, and the Himalayas of Asia. Compared with those geologically young mountain chains, the Blue Ridge is relatively old - the Appalachians have been subjected to long term erosion for about one-third of a billion years.

Seen here is an exfoliation dome called Looking Glass Rock in the Blue Ridge of North Carolina. The mountain itself is composed of granite - supposedly the Devonian-aged Whiteside Granite, but that name may not apply here. The rounded shape is from large-scale spheroidal weathering. The name "Looking Glass" refers to how sunlight reflects from the rock when wet from rain, or from ice in wintertime.

Locality: view from Looking Glass Rock overlook along the Blue Ridge Parkway, northern Transylvania County, southwestern North Carolina, USA