Mount Kinabalu Neogene Granite

Mount Kinabalu is the youngest granitoid intrusion in Southeast Asia. U–Pb ages from zircon ranged between 8 and 7 million years (Cottam et al., 2010). The granitic body intrudes ultrabasic rocks and sedimentary rocks of the Trusmadi and Crocker Formations. It was emplaced in a regional extension setting (Burton-Johnson et al., 2017) after the ultrabasic basement and sedimentary rocks were accreted (Hall, 2013). Igneous thermochronometry gave an upper to mid-crustal emplacement depth of 7–12 km (Cottam et al. 2013). The plutonic body is exposed at an elevation of around 4000 m. The rapid uplift of the area is thought to be associated with the removal of a dense lithospheric root under Sabah about 8 million years ago (Hall et al., 2009). The pluton has two phases: the outer part consists of coarse-grained porphyritic granite, whereas the main body consists of finer-grained hornblende granite and biotite granite. The landscape of Mount Kinabalu was shaped by glacial processes during the Quaternary (Koopmans and Stauffer, 1967). Rocks eroded from the mountain were deposited as the Pinousuk Gravels at Mesilou Plain. The erosion created the east and west plateaus and peaks such as Low’s Peak (4,101 m) and St. John’s Peak (4,098 m).