plateaus

We explain what plateaus are, their characteristics, differences with plains and examples of plateaus in Mexico and the world.

The Venezuelan tepuis are a particularly steep type of plateau.

What is a plateau?

A plateau is a plateau, that is, an extensive and elevated plain at a certain height (generally above 500 meters above sea level), or sometimes surrounded by moutains. It arises as a result of tectonic forces and erosive of relief.

Plateaus are a relatively common type of relief, which has its origin in the elevation of certain flat and horizontal strata by the meeting between two tectonic plates.

In other cases, they can arise from the sustained action of rivers, rains and other erosive factors that corrode the less resistant elements of a mountain, thus producing a plain at its top. There are also plateaus from volcanic action, always formed under the oceans.

The plateaus can have different heights, proportions and extensions. They receive different names depending on the region:

  • Highlands. They are plateaus sandwiched between two or more mountain ranges, at a high altitude.
  • Buttes. They are isolated flat hills with steep slopes, in the United States or Canada.
  • Plated. They are formations of more than 600 meters high with an almost flat portion at the top, in Brazil.

Examples of plateaus

The Andean highlands is a plateau at more than 3,000 meters above sea level.

Some of the best known plateaus in the world are the following:

  • The Andean highlands. Located in the Andes Mountains, it is a large flat extension more than 3 kilometers above sea level.
  • The Puna de Atacama. A huge plateau (100,000 km2 in area) located in the north of Chile and Argentina, and separated from the Andean highlands by an orographic knot, is above 3,000 meters high.
  • The Tibetan Plateau. Located in that country and more than 4 kilometers above sea level, it is part of the Himalayan mountain range.
  • The central Spanish plateau. With an average elevation of between 600 and 700 meters, it occupies almost the entire country, surrounded by mountain ranges that separate it from the coastal and maritime region.
  • The Australian Rocco Plateau. The densest in the entire globe, with an area of ​​more than 1,300 square meters.
  • The highlands of Cundiboyacense. Located in Colombia at one altitude Average of 2,600 meters above sea level, in an area of ​​25,000 km2 where the city of Bogotá is located.
  • The Venezuelan Tepuis. A type of plateau that is particularly steep and hollow inside, which encloses ecosystems whole apart from the rest of the environment and still unexplored by the human being, located in the southeastern region of the territory.

Plateaus of Mexico

In the territory of Mexico we can find the following plateaus, forming as a whole the so-called Mexican Plateau:

  • The Central Table or Center Table. Formerly called the central Altiplano, it is comprised between the Western and Eastern Sierras Madres, limiting to the south with the Neovolcanic Axis. It covers the territory of the states of Jalisco, Durango, Zacatecas, San Luis Potosí, Aguascalientes, Guanajuato and Querétaro.
  • The Purépecha Plateau. Also known as Madre Tarasca, located at the foot of the Neovolcanic Axis in the state of Michoacán, saw the emergence of the Purépecha culture in the postclassic period. mesoamerican, of which there are still descendants dedicated to agricultural production, in populations like Pátzcuaro, Tzintzuntzan and Tarzán.
  • The Sierras and Plains of the North. They occupy a good part of the state of Chihuahua, as well as parts of Coahuila, Durango and Sonora, are nestled between the Western and Eastern Sierra Madre, at an altitude of 1000 to 1300 meters above sea level, with a warm and semi-desert climate.

Plateaus and plains

Although it looks like a plain, most of Spain is a plateau.

Plains and depressions are large, flat relief areas with at most gentle elevations, such as hills or buttes, although it is not uncommon to find interruptions in the landscape such as plateaus or depressions. Unlike the plateaus, the plains are not elevated.

The former are flat elevations, and the latter are the opposite: submerged plains, even below sea level. These three types of relief are flat or flat, and for that reason they are usually used for the farming (when conditions allow it) or for livestock activity.

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