Kinnekulle
Template:Short description Template:Use dmy datesTemplate:Infobox mountain
Kinnekulle is a flat-topped mountain in the county of Västergötland, southwestern Sweden, on the eastern shore of lake Vänern. Its highest point is Template:Convert above sea level. The mountain is Template:Convert long and Template:Convert wide at the top.
History
The historic town and church of Husaby are located on the south side of the Kinnekulle. Tradition says that Olof Skötkonung, the first Christian King of Sweden, was baptized here in 1008 at a well located just north of the church.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The mountain of Kinnefjellet at Spitsbergen, Svalbard, is named after Kinnekulle.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
The Kinnekulle area has been a focal point for archaeological research due to its concentration of Late Neolithic (c. 2200–1700 BCE) and Early Bronze Age (c. 1700–1100 BCE) gallery graves. The mountain's limestone plateau contains at least 20 such graves, although the broader region has yielded relatively few stray finds from these periods.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite journal</ref>
Geology
Template:See also Kinnekulle's highest elevation is Template:Convert above sea level.<ref name="readersnatural">Template:Cite book</ref> The summit plateau measures approximately Template:Convert in length and Template:Convert in width.<ref name="readersnatural" /> It is one of several erosional remnants of Paleozoic sedimentary rock that appear as "islands" in the otherwise Precambrian crystalline landscape of southern Sweden. Its flat summit is the result of a resistant diabase sill that shields the softer underlying strata from erosion.<ref name=":0" /> Despite its enormous size, Kinnekulle is actually the smaller remnant of a much larger plateau, long ago worn down to a flat plain.<ref name="readersnatural" /> Some 550 million years ago, in the Neoproterozoic, the bottom-most rock of the plateau was under the sea. Layers of sedimentary rock formed over that layer from sand, mud, and sea animal remains.<ref name="readersnatural" />
The geological sequence includes sedimentary rocks dating from the Cambrian to the Silurian, overlying a Precambrian basement.<ref name=":1">Template:Cite journal</ref> These include Cambrian sandstones, alum shales, Ordovician Orthoceratite limestone, and Silurian slates.<ref name=":0" /><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> The limestone was deposited in an epicontinental sea that once covered the Baltoscandian Shield and is characterized by extremely low sedimentation rates, punctuated by hardgrounds indicating prolonged periods of non-deposition.<ref name=":1" />
About 200 million years ago, during the Mesozoic era, the area was uplifted above the sea. tectonic activity forced molten lava through the sedimentary rock, creating sheetlike layers of diabase. These layers, when present, protected the softer sedimentary rock beneath them from erosion, resulting in mesa-like mountains such as Kinnekulle and its neighbours.<ref name="readersnatural" />