A map of the Colorado Plateau.The Four Corners region and the Colorado Plateau.
The Colorado Plateau, also known as the Colorado Plateau Province,[1] is a physiographic and desert region of the Intermontane Plateaus, roughly centered on the Four Corners region of the southwestern United States. This province covers an area of 336,700 km2 (130,000 mi2) within western Colorado, northwestern New Mexico, southern and eastern Utah, northern Arizona, and a tiny fraction in the extreme southeast of Nevada. About 90% of the area is drained by the Colorado River and its main tributaries: the Green, San Juan, and Little Colorado. Most of the remainder of the plateau is drained by the Rio Grande and its tributaries.[2][3]: 395
The Colorado Plateau is largely made up of high desert, with scattered areas of forests. In the south-west corner of the Colorado Plateau lies the Grand Canyon of the Colorado River. Much of the Plateau's landscape is related to the Grand Canyon in both appearance and geologic history. The nickname "Red Rock Country" suggests the brightly colored rock left bare to the view by dryness and erosion. Domes, hoodoos, fins, reefs, river narrows, natural bridges, and slot canyons are only some of the additional features typical of the Plateau.
The Colorado Plateau has the greatest concentration of U.S. National Park Service (NPS) units in the country outside the Washington, DC metropolitan area. Among its nine national parks are Grand Canyon, Zion, Bryce Canyon, Capitol Reef, Canyonlands, Arches, Black Canyon, Mesa Verde, and Petrified Forest. Among its 18 national monuments and other protected areas managed by the NPS, the United States Forest Service, and the Bureau of Land Management are Bears Ears, Rainbow Bridge, Dinosaur, Hovenweep, Wupatki, Sunset Crater Volcano, Grand Staircase–Escalante, El Malpais, Natural Bridges, Canyons of the Ancients, Chaco Culture National Historical Park and the Colorado National Monument.
^"Colorado Plateau | plateau, United States". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 2017-06-05.
^Leighty, Robert D. (2001). "Colorado Plateau Physiographic Province". Contract Report. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DOD) Information Sciences Office. Archived from the original on 2004-09-26. Retrieved 2007-12-25.
^Cite error: The named reference geoparklands was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
The ColoradoPlateau, also known as the ColoradoPlateau Province, is a physiographic and desert region of the Intermontane Plateaus, roughly centered...
Deccan Plateau (≈1,900,000 km2 (730,000 sq mi), elevation 300–600 metres (980–1,970 ft)). A large plateau in North America is the ColoradoPlateau, which...
The ColoradoPlateau shrublands is an ecoregion of deserts and xeric shrublands in the Western United States. The ColoradoPlateau shrublands occupy the...
well as the northeastern portion of the ColoradoPlateau and the western edge of the Great Plains. Colorado is the eighth most extensive and 21st most...
been exposed as the Colorado River and its tributaries cut their channels through layer after layer of rock while the ColoradoPlateau was uplifted. While...
Rocky Mountains of Colorado, it flows generally southwest across the ColoradoPlateau and through the Grand Canyon before reaching Lake Mead on the Arizona–Nevada...
source. Located in north central Colorado it flows southwest through the ColoradoPlateau country of western Colorado, southeastern Utah and northwestern...
Region The Carolinas Cascadia Central United States Coastal states ColoradoPlateau Columbia Basin Contiguous United States The Dakotas Deep South Delmarva...
Other cold deserts lie within the Columbia Plateau/Columbia Basin, the Snake River Plain, and the ColoradoPlateau regions. (listed from north to south) Great...
The flora of the ColoradoPlateau and Canyonlands region is generally characterized by plant adaptations to the arid conditions of the region, and a wide...
provinces: the Columbia Plateau in the north, the Basin and Range Province in the central and southwestern portions, and the ColoradoPlateau in the southeast...
geological provinces in the United States: Pacific, Columbia Plateau, Basin and Range, ColoradoPlateau, Rocky Mountains, Laurentian Upland, Interior Plains,...
receives under 3 inches (76 mm) of rain a year, whilst the northeastern ColoradoPlateau is in a rain shadow and receives between 4.5 and 10 inches (114 and...
Arizona features forests of pine, Douglas fir, and spruce trees; the ColoradoPlateau; mountain ranges (such as the San Francisco Mountains); as well as...
The Kaiparowits Plateau is the darker area to the left, while the Escalante River Basin is the lighter area to the right. The Colorado River (as Lake Powell)...
as the Buckskin Mountain, Buckskin Plateau, and Kaibab Mountain. The plateau, part of the larger ColoradoPlateau, is bordered on the south by the Grand...
nations. The Four Corners region is part of a larger region known as the ColoradoPlateau and is mostly rural, rugged, and arid. The Four Corners area is named...
River in the Colorado River watershed, and is protected as Bryce Canyon National Park. A section of the Great Basin Divide is along the plateau, and much...
The Uncompahgre Plateau in western Colorado is a distinctive large uplift part of the ColoradoPlateau. Uncompahgre is a Ute word that describes the water:...
00,134,653 134,653 Western Australia, South Australia Australia 13 ColoradoPlateau Cold winter 00,337,000 337,000 00,130,116 130,116 Northern America...
valleys), the ColoradoPlateau, and the Rocky Mountains. In the United States, another major feature of the Cordillera is the Columbia Plateau, located north...
Topographic relief is significant as it rises 3,000 feet (910 meters) above the Colorado River in 1.5 mile. It was named by George Wharton James for the fanciful...
four features: the Mojave, Sonoran, and Chihuahuan Deserts, and the ColoradoPlateau; although there are other geographical features as well, such as a...
existing mountain ranges, cutting deep gorges. The Colorado River cut the Grand Canyon as the ColoradoPlateau rose between 5 and 2.5 million years ago. Paradox...
separates the ColoradoPlateau in the west from the interior of the North American craton on the east. The rift extends from central Colorado in the north...
responsible for creating the Rocky Mountains to the east. In total, the ColoradoPlateau was uplifted an estimated 2 miles (3.2 km). The adjacent Basin and...
southwestern Utah near the town of Springdale. Located at the junction of the ColoradoPlateau, Great Basin, and Mojave Desert regions, the park has a unique geography...
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