Monte Arcosu is a mountain in the Sulcis massif

Sulcis Mountains

The Sulcis Mountains is a mountain chain in Sardinia, Italy. Together with the Monte Linas massif, from which they are separated by the flood plain of the Cixerri River, they form the Sulcis-Iglesiente Mountains, one of the most ancient geological formations in the island.-Geology:The Sulcis...

, in southern Sardinia

Sardinia

Sardinia is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea . It is an autonomous region of Italy, and the nearest land masses are the French island of Corsica, the Italian Peninsula, Sicily, Tunisia and the Spanish Balearic Islands.The name Sardinia is from the pre-Roman noun *sard[],...

, Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

. It has an elevation of 948 metres (3,110 ft).

The mountain has a characteristically truncated cone shape, resulting from the differential erosion

Erosion

Erosion is when materials are removed from the surface and changed into something else. It only works by hydraulic actions and transport of solids in the natural environment, and leads to the deposition of these materials elsewhere...

 which followed its formation during the Variscan orogeny

Variscan orogeny

The Variscan orogeny is a geologic mountain-building event caused by Late Paleozoic continental collision between Euramerica and Gondwana to form the supercontinent of Pangaea.-Naming:...

. The massif is formed by a graniti

Graniti

Graniti is a comune in the Province of Messina in the Italian region Sicily, located about 160 km east of Palermo and about 45 km southwest of Messina. As of 31 December 2004, it had a population of 1,550 and an area of 10.0 km².Graniti borders the following municipalities: Antillo,...

c intrusion

Intrusion

An intrusion is liquid rock that forms under Earth's surface. Magma from under the surface is slowly pushed up from deep within the earth into any cracks or spaces it can find, sometimes pushing existing country rock out of the way, a process that can take millions of years. As the rock slowly...

 from the Carboniferous

Carboniferous

The Carboniferous is a geologic period and system that extends from the end of the Devonian Period, about 359.2 ± 2.5 Mya , to the beginning of the Permian Period, about 299.0 ± 0.8 Mya . The name is derived from the Latin word for coal, carbo. Carboniferous means "coal-bearing"...

, lying on a Paleozoic

Paleozoic

The Paleozoic era is the earliest of three geologic eras of the Phanerozoic eon, spanning from roughly...

 schist

Schist

The schists constitute a group of medium-grade metamorphic rocks, chiefly notable for the preponderance of lamellar minerals such as micas, chlorite, talc, hornblende, graphite, and others. Quartz often occurs in drawn-out grains to such an extent that a particular form called quartz schist is...

basement and in turn surmounted by Paleozoic scists. The Variscan orogeny removed the upper schist layer from all the massif's peaks but Monte Arcosu, modelling it and showing the granite along the steep slopes.