The southern part of the Tibetan Plateau is surrounded by the Himalayas, while the Kunlun Mountains are situated to the north. The surface of this sort of plateau is defined by very flat, broad valleys surrounded by eroded hills and mountains. The Hardangervidda Plateau is one of the largest plateaus in Europe located at a distance of about 200 km to the west of Oslo in the Hardanger region of western Norway. Intermontane plateaus are bordered by mountains and are the highest in the world. Table Mountain is a plateau which is an important landmark of Cape Town in South Africa. Others, such as the Colorado Plateau (across which the Colorado River has cut the Grand Canyon), were produced by processes very different from those that built neighbouring mountain ranges. John Atherton explored the plateau in 1875 and settled near the city named after him. Get exclusive access to content from our 1768 First Edition with your subscription. It is part of … Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students. Other plateaus, such as the Deccan Plateau in the central part of India, are not located near any mountain ranges. How Much Of The Amazon Rainforest Is Left? Except the research scientists, their laboratory animals, and the microbes which are the usual inhabitants on human skin or the digestive system, there is no life on this plateau. Monument Valley and the Grand Canyon, both icons of the American Southwest, were chiseled from the Colorado Plateau. Mexican Plateau Valleys form when river water cuts through the plateau. Different types of metallic minerals are obtained from here. Plateau Landform: Types and Importance of Plateaus, 15 Magnificent Facts About the Andes Mountains You’ll Wish You’d Known, What is a Canyon Landform: Formation, Location, Examples and Facts, Can Squirrels Eat Bread? Earth Eclipse. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. September 20, 2016 One side of the plateaus is steep while the others may have mountains or a sea. The plateaus having mountains on one side and plains or sea on the other sides are known as Piedmont plateaus. The term plateau is also applied when referring to a structural earth’s surface such as Spain’s Meseta, which is, in this case, a tectonic plateau.Being found in every continent, plateaus occupy one-third of the earth surface. It covers most of the Autonomous Tibetan Region, Qinghai Province of Western China, and a part of Ladakh in Jammu and Kashmir. Outside the Washington, DC metropolitan area, this plateau is the greatest attraction of U.S. National Park Service (NPS) units in the country. It is a mining and cattle rearing region of northwest Australia and. The Atlantic Plateau located at the eastern coast of Brazil was formerly covered by Atlantic Rainforest with its rich bio-diversity, and it is  reduced to only 7.5 percent of the original forests. Example: The Patagonian Plateau in South Africa and the Piedmont Plateau of the Eastern United States between the Atlantic Coastal Plain and the Appalachian Mountains. The eastern part of the Plateau of Tibet, which constitutes the headwaters of many of the great rivers of Asia (e.g., Huang He, Yangtze, Mekong, Salween, and Irrawaddy), is dissected into deep canyons separated by narrow, steep ridges; the high uniform elevation that characterizes plateaus is only barely discernible in that area. https://www.britannica.com/science/plateau-landform, plateau - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up). The plateau is known for the groundwater which is under positive pressure and causes the emergence of springs called Artesian wells. It’s main feature is a level plateau approximately 3 kilometers (2 mi) from side to side, surrounded by steep cliffs. It is famous for mineral resources, especially Uranium, Copper and Lead. Where’s the world’s 2nd highest plateau? Laurentian Plateau (Canada) It is a part of Canadian Shield. How Does Photosynthesis Take Place in Desert Plants? The ‘Grand Coulee Dam’ and ‘Bonneville Dam’ on River Columbia is constructed on this plateau region. It is bordered by the Cascade Range and Rocky Mountains and divided by the Columbia River. Made of multiple basalt layers or lava flows, the Deccan Traps covers 500,000 square kilometers in area. The plateau is known for the groundwater which is under positive pressure and causes the emergence of springs called Artesian wells. Precious wool producing Angora goat are found here. Volcanic processes, crustal shortening, and thermal expansion can drive the formation of plateaus. In the north, it is 100 meters elevated while its elevation is more than 1 kilometer in the south. Plateaus, also known as high plains or table lands, are raised landforms, usually less than 1,000 ft. above sea level. At an average, its elevation is 4,800 meters, making it the highest and largest plateau in the world. It is bordered by the San Francisco Mountains to the north. The Pacific Ocean, particularly in the region near New Zealand and Australia, has a large number of oceanic plateaus. This plateau is rich in mineral deposits such as iron, gold, silver, diamond, pearl, lead, zinc, kimberlite (diamond-bearing rock) and oil. The plateau includes part of the South Pole and the Amundsen Scott Station. Several successive lava flows may cover the original landscape and finally form a plateau, which contains cedar cones, lava fields, shield volcanoes, or other landforms associated with volcanic activity. It is an elevated landform with a more or less large flat or leveled area on top. The land buckled up along the seam of the collision and formed the Himalaya mountain range. Northwest of the plateau is bordered by one of the largest glaciers of Norway. There are currently 184 identified oceanic plateaus, which cover a combined area of about 7.2 million sq mi, or approximately 5.11% of the Earth’s oceans. The people here are tallest (6.10 feet) in the world. It extends approximately 770 square miles (2,000 square kilometers) between the Seychelles and Mauritius Islands. This plateau is an example of intermontane plateau. To the west of the plateau is a forested area and mountainous headwaters of the Yangtze, Salween, and Mekong Rivers. It is a significant tin reserve area. The Deccan Traps are known for containing some unique fossils like that of the toothed frog, Indobatrachus. Many plateaus form as magma deep inside the Earth pushes toward the surface but fails to break through the crust. Due to thick forests, this plateau is different from other parts of Thailand. , Joan, 1 Comment, September 5, 2016 Tibetan Plateau is the world’s highest and largest plateau of central Asia, also called the ‘roof of the world.’ It covers approximately 2,500,000 km² (970,000 sq mi) and at around 5,000 m (16,000 ft) above sea level. Different types of plateaus can be categorized based on the type of geological processes that caused their formation. Popularly known as “the Roof of the World”. , Comment Closed, August 28, 2014 Although the scale is different, there are active volcanoes and young lavas covering some broad basins on the northern part of the Plateau of Tibet. Tigris-Euphrates Rivers flow through this plateau. The average elevation of the Tibetan Plateau is slightly more than 14,800 ft, making it the world’s highest plateau. Example: The Colorado Plateau in the western United States, Tibetan plateau. By Benjamin Elisha Sawe on August 15 2019 in Environment. The Ethiopian Plateau, on which Precambrian rocks crop out, stands high because the underlying lithosphere has been heated, but Cenozoic volcanic rocks cover much of the plateau, especially those areas that are the flattest. All three processes—thermal expansion, crustal shortening, and volcanism—may have contributed to the high, flat elevation of at least part of that plateau. The Columbia Plateau is located in parts of Washington, Oregon, and Idaho states of the U.S. © 1996-2015 National Geographic Society, © 2015- Although ranges of hills and mountains rise above the rest of the plateau, their topography too is rather gentle. It is famous for cultivation of Maize and coarse grains. Magma that escapes from the Earth's crust through fissures or narrow cracks reaches the surface and spreads over a large area, and later solidifies to form a plateau. Find out the list of major plateaus of the world with their location for competitive exams like UPSC-prelims, SSC, State Services, NDA, CDS, Bank, Railways etc and many of the people are searching how to treat from the oil product which help you to in the world series then you have one of the best topic of the site is that is HookupXpert. This intermontane plateau is situated between two ranges of the Andes Mountains. What is a Rock and What are 3 Basic Types of Rocks, Other Classifications of Plateaus according to the Surrounding Environment, 30+ Awesome Facts About Plains You Can't Afford to Miss, What is a Mountain Landform: Formation and Types of Mountains, What is a Cliff? All Rights Reserved . It is divided by the Colorado River and the Grand Canyon. It is often referred to as the "Roof of the World" due to its location at roughly 3 miles above sea level. If the uplifted surface had originally been low and without prominent relief, it is likely to remain relatively flat when uplifted to a relatively uniform elevation. Volcanic islands, mantle plumes, and hotspots are associated with the formation of oceanic plateaus. (And Are They Still Growing), LEED Certification: Why Do You Need it and Process to Apply For it, How Can Animals Drink Dirty Water? Examples of pyroclastic plateaus include the North Island Volcanic Plateau in New Zealand and the Shirasu-Daichi Plateau, which covers the southern part of Kyushu, Japan. Taken together, piedmont translates to "foot of a mountain." Mascarene Plateau is one of those kinds located in the Indian Ocean east and north of Madagascar. (And Do They Mate With Other Species). A plateau has a steep slope or vertical cliffs on at least one of the sides rising sharply above the surrounded area. There are four primary plateau classifications: intermontane, volcanic, piedmont, and continental. Dissected plateaus are also highly eroded by rivers and broken by deep narrow valleys. The ground swells upward, and the large, flat areas of rock are uplifted to form a plateau. The high plateaus of East Africa and Ethiopia were formed that way. In some instances, a lava plateau could be part of a single volcano. Countries Where Illegal Wildlife Trade Is A Major Threat To Wildlife. The Altiplano or Andean Plateau or Bolivian Plateau is located in the west-central part of South America where the areas of the Andes are the widest. He has been part of many reputed domestic and global online magazines and publications. this is not the info i need!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The Atherton Tableland is located in Queensland, Australia. The formation of a plateau requires one of the same three types of tectonic processes that create mountain ranges—volcanism, crustal shortening (by the thrusting of one block or slice of crust over another or by the folding of layers of rock), and thermal expansion. These types of plateaus are typically made up of layers of lava sheets. Other plateaus are created over time as wind and rain wear away the side of an uplifted region, giving it geographic distinction from the surrounding terrain. Plateaus are sculpted by geologic forces that lift them up and the wind and rain that wear them down into mesas, buttes, and canyons. It is a region for farming and ranching covering 496,871 km² area and is at 1220 m (4,000 ft) above sea level. The warming of the underlying lithosphere in late Cenozoic time (66 million years ago to the present) caused that area to rise to its present elevation, and those erosion-resistant formations dating to Paleozoic time define the surfaces that make the remarkably flat horizons at the Grand Canyon. The Colorado Plateau or the Colorado Plateau Province is the largest plateau in America lying in its southwestern part. , Comment Closed. The Mascarene plateau’s northern part is made of granite and topped with limestone and basalt deposits. Examples of intermontane plateaus include the Tibetan Plateau and the Mongolian Plateau, both of which are located in Asia. In spite of the paucity of roads, one can drive over most of that plateau, where elevations exceed 4,500 metres (about 14,760 feet), and encounter less relief than in some major cities of the world (e.g., San Francisco or Rio de Janeiro).