Mesa (landform)
A mesa is an elevated, flat-topped landform with steep sides, produced by differential erosion that leaves a resistant caprock protecting softer strata beneath. Mesas are especially common in arid and semiarid regions such as the Colorado Plateau of the southwestern United States and often evolve from broader plateaus into smaller buttes as escarpments retreat. The term derives from the Spanish word for table and is used in geomorphology to distinguish these isolated tablelands from larger plateaus and smaller buttes.
