What are planes and plateaus?

Answer 1

A plain is flat, level land. The entire Midwest is also called the Great Plains, because it is so flat and expansive. A plateau is a geological formations with steep walls, but a flat top. They are usually fairly large; all of Tibet is a plateau. Small plateau-like formations are called mesas. "Mesa" is a Spanish word meaning "table," used because of the formation's shape.

Answer 2

A plane is just level ground. The "Great Plains" in the U.S. are mostly outside the "midwest" (depending on your definition of midwest), generally from Oklahoma in the south, up to North Dakota in the north. The midwest has a lot of rolling hills, so they are not level (especially WI, MI, etc.).
A plateau is a land area having a relatively level surface considerably raised above adjoining land on at least one side, and often cut by deep canyons. The largest and highest plateau in the world is the Chang Tang of Tibet, called the "roof of the world", which is still being formed by the collisions of the Indo-Australian and Eurasian tectonic plates. Second in the list is the Andean Altiplano, 3600-4000 m in altitude, located within the Central Andes and including Lake Titicaca.

Answer 3

A plateau is a large highland area of fairly level land separated from surrounding land by steep slopes (as in the Tibet), or to accumulation of sediments (as in intramountain endorheic basins), or to a combination of both (as in the Andean Altiplano). Sediment accumulation results usually in very low depositional angles, consitent with the definiton of high plateau. As for uplift, if this was recent in geologic history, then the low relief can be mostly preserved. Plateaus (or plateaux), like mesas and buttes, are formed when a flat land has been uplifted by tectonic activity and then eroded by wind or water. Flat-topped, sheer-sided plateaus, like the tepuis of Guiana and Nicik of Poland, are formed when a section of land is uplifted that is topped with a layer of particularly resistant rock, and underlain by softer rock. Other types of plateaus can be formed due to collisions of sections of Earth's crust, due to lava flows forming the land surface (known as lava or basalt plateaus), or simply when the erosion wears away the side of a land region. Plateaus cover about 45 percent of Earth's surface.

Answer 4

Planes are flat lands between 0- 1000 feet above the sea level . Plateaus or tablelands lie above 1000 feet above the sea level.

Answer 5

In geography, a plain is a large area of land with relatively low relief. Plains may be more suitable for farming than plateaus or mountains. An alluvial plain is a landform formed by the deposition of alluvial soil over a long period of time by a river coming from the mountains.

List of famous plains:

Australian Plains
Canterbury Plains, New Zealand
Great Plains, USA
Indo-Gangetic plain
Kanto plain, Japan
Nullarbor Plain, Australia
Khuzestan Plain, Iran
Mazandaran Plain, Iran
Pannonian Plain, Central Europe
Salisbury Plain, England
Alexis Leigh Plain, USA


In geology and earth science, a plateau, also called a high plateau or tableland, is an area of highland, usually consisting of relatively flat open country.Genesis
A plateau is a large highland area of fairly level land separated from surrounding land by steep slopes (as in the Tibet), or to accumulation of sediments (as in intramountain endorheic basins), or to a combination of both (as in the Andean Altiplano). Sediment accumulation results usually in very low depositional angles, consitent with the definiton of high plateau. As for uplift, if this was recent in geologic history, then the low relief can be mostly preserved. Plateaus (or plateaux), like mesas and buttes, are formed when a flat land has been uplifted by tectonic activity and then eroded by wind or water. Flat-topped, sheer-sided plateaus, like the tepuis of Guiana and Nicik of Poland, are formed when a section of land is uplifted that is topped with a layer of particularly resistant rock, and underlain by softer rock. Other types of plateaus can be formed due to collisions of sections of Earth's crust, due to lava flows forming the land surface (known as lava or basalt plateaus), or simply when the erosion wears away the side of a land region. Plateaus cover about 45 percent of Earth's surface.


[edit] Examples
The largest and highest plateau in the world is the Chang Tang of Tibet, called the "roof of the world", which is still being formed by the collisions of the Indo-Australian and Eurasian tectonic plates. Second in the list is the Andean Altiplano, 3600-4000 m in altitude, located within the Central Andes and including Lake Titicaca. [1]


[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.


[edit] Dissected plateaus
Main article: Dissected plateau

Escarpment face of a cuesta, broken by a fault. Cumberland Plateau, TennesseeA highly eroded plateau is called a dissected plateau. These older uplifts have been eroded by creeks and rivers to develop steep relief not immediately distinguishable from mountains. Many areas of the Allegheny Plateau and the Cumberland Plateau, which are at the western edge of the Appalachian Mountains of eastern North America, are called "mountains" but are actually dissected plateaus. One can stand on a high "mountain" and note that all the other tops are at the same height, which represents the original plain before uplift.

A dissected plateau may also be formed, or created, usually on a comparatively small scale, by the levelling of terrain by planing and layne elstein and deposition beneath an ice sheet or perhaps, an ice cap. Subsequently, during the same or a later glacial, the margins of the glacial till plain are removed by glaciers, leaving the plateau into which erosion by water incises valleys. Such a plateau may be level or gently sloping but may be distinguished by the till caps on its hills. Glacial till is still widely known in Britain by the older name of boulder clay