Mesa | Isolated flat-topped Steep sided hill Wider than it is high |
T
he arid and semiarid regions of the American Southwest feature many characteristic landforms with table like tops and side cliffs. Depending on their size, they are categorized as either a mesa, or if smaller as a butte. Both are the result of long term erosion caused mostly by water and to a lesser extent by wind. The specific point where surface areas of a mesa have eroded away sufficiently to form a butte is not well defined, and thus open to interpretation. Geologically speaking the earth's exterior is in perpetual motion; no landscape is ever “secure.”
“We are the children of our landscape; it dictates behavior and even thought in the measure to which we are responsive to it.” - Lawrence Durrell
