Heavy glaciation at this location during the Pleistocene eroded much of the softer surrounding rock leaving the towering crags and spires exposed, from which the Castle Crags pluton derives its name.

As the softer surrounding rocks eroded, a process whose duration can be counted in hundreds of millions of years, Suilven was left as an Inselberg, an "island-mountain", hence its prominence.

Heated by their bodies, their caves were slightly warmer than most surrounding rock, so they spent their lives cocooned in light.

The island and its surrounding rocks and reefs are still a hazard to the fishing vessels which ply Foveaux Strait, itself a notoriously dangerous stretch of water.

As a result of the many shipwrecks in the area, Start Point lighthouse was built in 1836 to alert ships to the danger of the point and its surrounding rocks.

They accumulate sand and gravel en route, and this erodes all but the hardest surrounding rocks.

People thrived at Bandelier due to the rainfall and the ease of constructing living structures from the surrounding soft volcanic rock.

Metal deposits are formed by hydrothermal interaction of fluids between volcanic and surrounding rocks, concentrating copper sulfates in ore zones.

The screen filled with black and then backed off to show some surrounding bright, scuffed rock.

Through a combination of erosion of the weaker surrounding rock, and sea level rise following the last ice age, the Farnes were left as islands.