butte

[French, from Old French butt, mound behind targets. See butt³.]

(byoot)

noun
An isolated hill rising abruptly from the surrounding area, having steep sides and a flat top.

Etymology
From French butte (mound)

For more information on butte, visit Britannica.com.

A small, flat-topped, unvegetated, and very steep-sided hill of layered strata, probably the residue of a larger feature (See mesa), and thought by some geomorphologists to be evidence of parallel slope retreat. Devotees of ‘westerns’ will have seen buttes many times, especially those in Monument Valley, on the Colorado Plateau, USA.

Tutor's tip: The group on the "butte" (small steep mountain with a flat top) made him the "butt" (laughing stock) of their jokes, "but" (except that) he did not laugh.

For other uses, see Butte, Montana and Butte (disambiguation).

Merrick's Butte in Monument Valley, Utah

A butte (pronounced /ˈbjuːt/) 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 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.

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.^[1]

Two noted buttes are Chimney Rock and Crested Butte in Colorado.

Contents 1 Formation 2 References 3 See also 4 External links

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[2]

References

1. ^ "Mesa and Butte". Science Clarified. 2008. http://www.scienceclarified.com/landforms/Faults-to-Mountains/Mesa-and-Butte.html. Retrieved 2008-06-30. 
2. ^ Hill, R.T. 1890. A brief description of the Cretaceous rocks of Texas and their economic value. In: Dumble, E.T. (ed.), First Annual Report of the Geological Survey of Texas, 1889. Austin: State Printing Office, pp. 105-141.

See also

• Monadnock
• Potrero
• Tepui
• Tuya

External links

• "Mesas and Buttes" photographs and examples

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