Granite Mountain (Arizona)

Granite Mountain is composed of Paleoproterozoic biotite granodiorite to granite that is known by geologist as the Mint Wash Granodiorite. The Mint Wash Granodiorite consists of medium to coarse-grained, weakly to strongly porphyritic granite with phenocrysts of gray to pink potassium feldspar up to in length and as much as eight percent biotite that is less than in size. This granite grades laterally into a fine grained, equigranular leucogranite with less than two percent biotite that is less than in size. The Mint Wash Granodiorite is almost everywhere undeformed. The rocks that are part of the Yavapai tectonic province and intruded by the Mint Wash Pluton formed in volcanic island arcs overlying one or more subduction systems, similar to modern volcanic arcs in the Aleutian Islands, the Philippines, and Indonesia. Then, granitic igneous rock, e.g. the Mint Wash Pluton, were later intruded into them when these volcanic arcs collided with and welded to Laurentia and each other ca. 1.7–1.66 Ga during the Yavapai and Mazatzal orogenies. ==Ecology==

The biotic communities at Granite Mountain range from montane conifer forest and juniper pinyon woodland, to interior chaparral. Granite Mountain is a nesting site for the peregrine falcon (Falco peregrinus), and the climbing area on the south face is periodically closed to rock climbing, typically from February 1 until July 15 each year. ==See also==