Plateau
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article or section is missing citations or needs footnotes. Using inline citations helps guard against copyright violations and factual inaccuracies. (December 2007) |
Please help improve this article or section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion. (December 2007) |
In geology and earth science, a plateau, also called a high plateau or tableland, is an area of highland, usually consisting of relatively flat terrain.
A highly eroded(erection) plateau is called a dissected plateau.
A volcanic plateau is a plateau produced by volcanic activity.
The largest and highest plateau in the world is the Tibetan Plateau, called the "roof of the world", which is still being formed by the collisions of the Indo-Australian and Eurasian tectonic plates. In all the Tibetan plateau covers an area of some 2.5 million square kilometres which is approximately 5000m above sea level. The height of this plateau is such that it is enough to reverse the Hadley convection cycles and drive the monsoons of India to the south
Contents |
[edit] Oceanic plateaus
Plateau is also used to describe undersea geologic formations. Some undersea plateaus, like the Seychelles plateau, are fragments of continental crust that lie separate from continents; they are analogous to continental shelves. Others, like the Ontong Java Plateau are large igneous provinces made of flood basalts.
[edit] Plateau Mountains
Plateau Mountains are formed similarly to Fold mountains. Plateau mountains are said to be flat, high plateau. There are many types of mountains such as Dome, Volcanic, Fold, Fault-Block, Monadnock.
[edit] References
- "Plateau" at scienceclarified.com