Mount Kinabalu is primarily a large granodiorite (or granite), which intrudes into the sedimentary rocks and forms the core of Mount Kinbalu. This dome batholith was million’s of years ago pushed up from the earth’s crust as molten rocks and in geological terms is a very young mountain.
This molten rock hardened and formed into granite roughly 10 million years ago and is still pushing up and outwards at roughly 5mm per year. During the Pleistocene Period 100,000 years ago, the massive bulk of the mountain was covered in ice, with glaciers flowing down it’s sides.
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The flowing of these glaciers scoured and marked the surface, in the process creating the 1800m deep Low’s Gully, named aptly after Hugh Low and is located on the North side.
Its granite composition and the glacial formative processes are readily apparent when viewing its craggy rocky peaks.
The mountain range itself covers over an area of around 750km squared, stretching through the entire West coast of Sabah. At 4095m (13 435 feet), Mount Kinabalu dwarfs all around it and is the highest mountain between the 2500km long Maoke Mountain range and the peaks of the Himalayas.
The lowest elevation of Kinabalu Park is 550m (1805 feet), or the Porinng Hot Springs, located in the Southern region of the park.
This massive change in height in such a small area means that the temperature decreases from 25°C at sweltering and humid Poring, to 4°C at the summit of Mount Kinabalu.
Due to its altitude, it enjoys heavy rainfall for several months of the year, as clouds are trapped in many areas of the Park. Also referred to as “a mountain of mist and rain” (Dr. Willem Meijer).
Mount Kinabalu, or Gunung Kinabalu (in the national language of Malay) is on the island of Borneo, in the state of Sabah, Malaysia. Located in Kinabalu National park, which is a World Heritage Site, it stands as the highest mountain in the Malay Archipelago.
