Question

What is the significance of a plateau? Write any two.

Answer 1

Answer:

Plateaus are important because of the following reasons: Plateaus are storehouses of minerals. They have rich deposits of minerals. While the African Plateau has huge reserves of gold and silver, Chota Nagpur Plateau in India is famous for coal, iron and manganese deposits.

Explanation:

Answer 2

Answer:

DEFINITION - Plateau, extensive area of flat upland usually bounded by an escarpment (i.e., steep slope) on all sides but sometimes enclosed by mountains. The essential criteria for plateaus are low relative relief and some altitude. Although plateaus stand at a higher elevation than surrounding terrain, they differ from mountain ranges in that they are remarkably flat. Some plateaus, like the Altiplano in southern Peru and western Bolivia, are integral parts of mountain belts. Others, such as the Colorado Plateau (across which the Colorado River has cut the Grand Canyon), were produced by processes very different from those that built neighbouring mountain ranges. Some plateaus—for example, the Deccan plateau of central India—occur far from mountain ranges. The differences among plateaus can be ascribed to the different geologic processes that have created them.

GEOMORPHIC CHARACTERISTICS - The high flat surface that defines a plateau can continue for hundreds or even thousands of kilometers, as in the case of the Plateau of Tibet. In spite of the paucity of roads, one can drive over most of that plateau, where elevations exceed 4,500 meters (about 14,760 feet), and encounter less relief than in some major cities of the world (e.g., San Francisco or Rio de Janeiro). Although the ranges of hills and mountains rise above the rest of the plateau, their topography is rather gentle. Plateaus dissected (eroded) by rivers have remarkably uniform maximum elevations, but their surfaces can be interrupted by deep canyons. In the case of some regions described as plateaus, the surface is so dissected that one does not see any flat terrain. Instead, such a plateau is defined by a uniform elevation of the highest ridges and mountains. The eastern part of the Plateau of Tibet, which constitutes the headwaters of many of the great rivers of Asia (e.g., Huang He, Yangtze, Mekong, Salween, and Irrawaddy), is dissected into deep canyons separated by narrow, steep ridges; the high uniform elevation that characterizes plateaus is only barely discernible in that area.

IMPORTANCE - Plateaus are important because of the following reasons: Plateaus are storehouses of minerals. They have rich deposits of minerals. While the African Plateau has huge reserves of gold and silver, Chota Nagpur Plateau in India is famous for coal, iron and manganese deposits.