A mesa (Spanish and Portuguese for table) is the American English term for tableland, an elevated area of land with a flat top and sides that are usually steep cliffs. It takes its name from its characteristic table-top shape.
It is a characteristic landform of arid environments, particularly the Western and Southwestern United States in badlands and mountainous regions ranging from Washington and California to the Dakotas and Texas. Examples are also found in many other nations including Spain, Sardinia, North and South Africa, Arabia, India, and Australia.
The term mesa is used throughout the United States to describe a flat-topped mountain or hill. In Spanish such a landform is more usually known as a meseta.
Read more about Mesa: Formation, Mesas On Mars
Other articles related to "mesa, mesas":
... In 1998, Jonathan Ornstein was appointed CEO of Mesa Air Group ... Ornstein had been Risley's assistant from 1989 to 1995 during Mesa's initial expansion ... Larry Risley remained on Mesa's board of directors ...
... Kearny Mesa is a community in the eastern part of San Diego, California ... Adjacent communities include Serra Mesa, Clairemont and Tierrasanta ... Kearny Mesa has a population of 2,837 ...
... Mesa Air Group Fleet 20061 Seats Orders/ Options 1995 ... Bombardier CRJ 86. 4/112² 0. 0 ... Mesa took delivery of 3 CRJ-700 aircraft during 2006 ... ³During 2006 Mesa acquired 12 used Dash-8-100s for Freedom Airline's Delta Connection service at New York's John F ...
... The younger lowland exhibits steep walled mesas and knobs ... The mesa and knobs are separated by flat lying lowlands ... The mesas and knobs decrease in size with increasing distance from the highland escarpment ...
... Mesa Air Group, Inc ... The company operates one regional airline subsidiary Mesa Airlines, and five supporting subsidiaries ... It operates flights under the Mesa Airlines and go! brands, or under contract in accordance with several codeshare agreements as US Airways Express, and United Express ...
Famous quotes containing the word mesa:
“This mesa plain had an appearance of great antiquity, and of incompleteness; as if, with all the materials for world-making assembled, the Creator had desisted, gone away and left everything on the point of being brought together, on the eve of being arranged into mountain, plain, plateau. The country was still waiting to be made into a landscape.”
—Willa Cather (1873–1947)