The surface of the summit is primarily dark, almost black, sandstone and quartzite — rock so ancient that it has been stained by billions of years of mineral deposition, algae growth, and the chemical processes of extreme weathering.

Interspersed with the dark rock are areas of white or pale quartz crystal — some of it loose fragments, some of it in formations that catch the light when the clouds part and the sun breaks through.

The summit receives so much rain that water pools are constant features.

Some of these pools are small and transient, persisting after rains and evaporating as the sun dries the rock.

Others are more permanent, occupying natural depressions in the plateau surface and supporting their own small communities of organisms.