butte

Isolated desert formation

A butte is an isolated hill with steep sides and a flat top, smaller than a mesa.

Buttes are characteristic of arid landscapes in the American West, where erosion has worn away surrounding rock: The lone butte rose from the desert floor.

The word comes from French, where it simply means hill or mound.

landform

mesa

Flat-topped steep-sided elevation

plateauFlat highland area
outcropSurfacing native stone
bluffCalculated false front

escarpment · pinnacle · monolith · tableland · knob · hill · ridge · formation · erosion · sedimentary

geology

erosion

Gradual wearing away

sedimentaryFormed from deposited material
caprockImpermeable geological cover layer
volcanicOf fiery mountain origin

basalt · sandstone · shale · resistant · weathering · strata · uplift · tectonic · formation · remnant

placename

Montana

Northwestern state, fourth-largest

mining townSettlement serving ore extraction
copperReddish-brown metallic element
IrishOf the Emerald Isle

Evel Knievel · immigrant · smelter · boomtown · historic · Rockies · Continental Divide · uptown · civic · community

butte

mesa

erosion

Montana

butte

Opposites

Categories

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