A term of Spanish origin, mesa was first introduced into geological literature in the American southwest, and is now universally applied to flattopped hills and mountains, cut off on one or more sides by steep escarpments or “breakaways.” Generally they occur in flat-lying structures, or where a complex (e.g., Precambrian) basement has developed a duricrusted soil (silcrete or lateritic ironstone, “ferricrete”), and base level has been lowered as in multiple pediplanation surfaces.
The diminutive form mesita is sometimes used, but it is rare. It is not to be confused with meseta which is used for semiarid high plains or tablelands in general and, in particular, by French geomorphologists for a peneplaned (or pediplaned) ancient complex of plateau or high-plain character (such as the central Meseta of Spain).
Mesas are sometimes rendered in English as tabletop mountains or hills (German, Tafelberg ). Beyond the marginal escarpment there are often erosional outliers (buttes; French,...
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References
Baulig, H., 1956, Vocabulaire Franco—Anglo—Allemand de Géomorphologie, Paris (Publ. Fac. Lettres Univ. Strasbourg, No. 130), 230pp.
Gilbert, G. K., and Gulliver, F. P., 1895, Tepee buttes, Bull. Geol. Soc. Am., 6, 333–342.
Lahee, F. H., 1916, Field Geology, New York, McGraw-Hill Book Co. (sixth ed., 1961).
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Fairbridge, R.W. (1968). Mesa and butte . In: Geomorphology. Encyclopedia of Earth Science. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-31060-6_240
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