News tagged with plateau
Astronomers find coldest, driest, calmest place on Earth
The search for the best observatory site in the world has lead to the discovery of what is thought to be the coldest, driest, calmest place on Earth. No human is thought to have ever been there but it is expected to yield ...
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Aug 31, 2009 |
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Massive Southern Ocean current discovered
(PhysOrg.com) -- A deep ocean current with a volume equivalent to 40 Amazon Rivers has been discovered by Japanese and Australian scientists near the Kerguelen plateau, in the Indian Ocean sector of the Southern ...
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Apr 26, 2010 |
4.8 / 5 (19) |
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When continents collide: A new twist to a 50 million-year-old tale
Fifty million years ago, India slammed into Eurasia, a collision that gave rise to the tallest landforms on the planet, the Himalaya Mountains and the Tibetan Plateau.
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Feb 29, 2012 |
4.5 / 5 (12) |
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Geologists solve mystery of the Colorado Plateau
(PhysOrg.com) -- A team of scientists led by Rice University has figured out why the Colorado Plateau – a 130,000-square-mile region that straddles Colorado, Utah, Arizona and New Mexico -- is rising ...
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Apr 27, 2011 |
4.8 / 5 (10) |
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New research suggests strong Indian crust thrust beneath the Tibetan Plateau
For many years, most scientists studying Tibet have thought that a very hot and very weak lower and middle crust underlies its plateau, flowing like a fluid. Now, a team of researchers at the California Institute ...
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Apr 06, 2011 |
4.6 / 5 (10) |
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New research sheds light on Earth's coldest temperatures
(PhysOrg.com) -- Results from the first detailed analysis of the lowest ever temperature recorded on the Earth's surface can explain why it got so cold and how cold it could possibly get.
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Jan 12, 2010 |
3.6 / 5 (12) |
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Frogs evolution tracks rise of Himalayas and rearrangement of Southeast Asia
The evolution of a group of muscled frogs scattered throughout Asia is telling geologists about the sequence of events that led to the rise of the Himalayas and the Tibetan plateau starting more than 55 million ...
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Aug 05, 2010 |
5 / 5 (8) |
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First complete image created of Himalayan fault, subduction zone
An international team of researchers has created the most complete seismic image of the Earth's crust and upper mantle beneath the rugged Himalaya Mountains, in the process discovering some unusual geologic ...
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Sep 11, 2009 |
4.4 / 5 (8) |
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Archaeologists to raise ancient Egyptian ship
Egyptian and Japanese archaeologists on Thursday began to unearth an ancient boat belonging to King Khufu and buried near the Giza pyramids for more than 4,500 years.
Other Sciences / Archaeology & Fossils
Jun 23, 2011 |
5 / 5 (6) |
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Glacial tap is open but the water will run dry
Glaciers are retreating at an unexpectedly fast rate according to research done in Peru's Cordillera Blanca by McGill doctoral student Michel Baraer. They are currently shrinking by about one per cent a year, and that percentage ...
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Dec 20, 2011 |
5 / 5 (6) |
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Ancient raindrops reveal a wave of mountains sent south by sinking Farallon plate
(PhysOrg.com) -- Analyzing the isotope ratios of ancient raindrops preserved in soils and lake sediments, Stanford researchers have shown that a wave of mountain building began in British Columbia, Canada ...
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Dec 17, 2010 |
4.5 / 5 (6) |
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The impact of plate tectonics
Helping to settle a debate over plate tectonics that has divided geologists for decades, scientists at Harvard University have moved a step closer to understanding the complex physical deformation of one of ...
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Mar 09, 2011 |
3 / 5 (8) |
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Egypt scours bed of Lake Qarun in search of antiquities
Egyptian experts have begun to explore the depths of Lake Qarun south of Cairo using remote sensing radars in search of sunken artefacts, antiquities officials told AFP on Wednesday.
Other Sciences / Archaeology & Fossils
Jul 21, 2010 |
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Researchers discover important woolly rhino fossil
A paper to be published on September 2, 2011 in the authoritative magazine Science reveals the discovery of a primitive woolly rhino fossil in the Himalayas, which suggests some giant mammals first evolve ...
Other Sciences / Archaeology & Fossils
Sep 01, 2011 |
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Heat and moisture from Himalayas could be a key cause of the South Asian monsoon
Harvard climate scientists suggest that the Tibetan Plateau—thought to be the primary source of heat that drives the South Asian monsoon—may have far less of an effect than the Himalayas and other surrounding mountains. As ...
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Jan 13, 2010 |
4.8 / 5 (4) |
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Plateau
In geology and earth science, a plateau ( /pləˈtoʊ/ or /ˈplætoʊ/; plural plateaus or rarely plateaux), also called a high plain or tableland, is an area of highland, usually consisting of relatively flat terrain. A highly eroded plateau is called a dissected plateau. A volcanic plateau is a plateau produced by volcanic activity.
Plateaus can be formed by a number of processes, including, upwelling of volcanic magma, extrusion of lava, and erosion by water and glaciers. Magma rises from the mantle causing the ground to swell upward, in this way large, flat areas of rock are uplifted. Plateaus can also be built up by lava spreading outwards from cracks and weak areas in the crust, an example of such a plateau is the Columbia Plateau in the northwestern United States of America. Plateaus can also be formed due to the erosional processes of glaciers on mountain ranges, in this case the plateaus are left sitting between the mountain ranges. Water can also erode mountains and other landforms down into plateaus.
Plateaus are classified according to their surrounding environment, common categories are: intermontane, piedmont, and continental plateaus.
For more information about Plateau, read the full article at
Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.
