Butte

Merrick's Butte in Monument Valley, Utah

A butte (Template:Pron-en) is a conspicuous isolated hill with steep, often vertical sides and a small, relatively flat top; it is smaller than mesas, plateaus, and tables. In some regions, such as the north central and northwestern United States, the word is used for any hill. The word "butte" comes from a French word meaning "small hill"; its use is prevalent in the western United States, including the southwest, where "mesa" is also used. Because of their distinctive shapes, buttes are frequently key landmarks in both plains and mountainous areas.

In differentiating mesas and buttes, geographers use the rule that a mesa has a top wider than its height, while a butte's top is narrower.

Three classic buttes are Scotts Bluff (actually a collection of five bluffs) in Nebraska, Crested Butte in Colorado, and Elephant Butte in New Mexico.

Among the well-known non-flat-topped buttes in the United States are Bear Butte, South Dakota, and Black Butte, Oregon. In many cases, buttes have been given other names that do not use the word "butte", for example, Courthouse Rock, Nebraska.

Formation

Buttes are formed by erosion when hard caprock covers a layer of softer rock that is eventually worn away. The hard rock thus avoids erosion. On a much smaller scale, the same process forms hoodoos.

• 
  Black Butte, near Sisters, Oregon
• 
  Butte near Sedona, Arizona
• 
  Signal Butte near Big Spring, Texas

See also

Caprock Caprock Escarpment Megalith Monadnock Mesa Monolith

Potrero Table (landform) Table mountain Tepui Tuya

External links

• "Mesas and Buttes" photographs and examples