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39-538: The Highlands are located to the southeast of the Highveld , encompassing the whole eastern part of Lesotho. The average annual rainfall is nearly 1,000 mm (40 inches) in some parts of the high ranges. Temperature is closely related to elevation in the Lesotho Highlands. In general, the mean July (winter) temperatures stay around 7 °C (45 °F). The Lesotho Highlands form a localized high spot on

78-412: A plateau ( / p l ə ˈ t oʊ , p l æ ˈ t oʊ , ˈ p l æ t oʊ / ; French: [plato] ; pl. : plateaus or plateaux ), also called a high plain or a tableland , is an area of a highland consisting of flat terrain that is raised sharply above the surrounding area on at least one side. Often one or more sides have deep hills or escarpments . Plateaus can be formed by

117-568: A number of processes, including upwelling of volcanic magma , extrusion of lava , and erosion by water and glaciers . Plateaus are classified according to their surrounding environment as intermontane, piedmont, or continental. A few plateaus may have a small flat top while others have wider ones. Plateaus can be formed by a number of processes, including upwelling of volcanic magma, extrusion of lava, plate tectonics movements, and erosion by water and glaciers. Volcanic plateaus are produced by volcanic activity . The Columbia Plateau in

156-553: A river was already there, though not necessarily on exactly the same course. Then, subterranean geological forces caused the land in that part of North America to gradually rise by about a centimeter per year for millions of years. An unusual balance occurred: the river that would become the Colorado River was able to erode into the crust of the Earth at a nearly equal rate to the uplift of the plateau. Now, millions of years later,

195-471: A small patch of this lava remains and covers much of Lesotho. The Lesotho Highlands have been deeply eroded by the tributaries of the Orange River which drain these highlands towards the south-west by means of erosion gulleys which turn into deep valleys further downstream. This gives this high region its very rugged, mountainous appearance. There are so many of these tributaries that the whole terrain of

234-567: Is Botha's lark ( Spizocorys fringillaris ) and the two endemic mammals – the Free State pygmy mouse ( Mus orangiae ) and the rough-haired golden mole ( Chrysospalax villosa ). As well as the python, other reptiles include the Nile crocodile ( Crocodylus niloticus ), Nile monitor ( Varanus niloticus ), rock monitor ( Varanus albigularis ), and giant girdled lizard or sungazer ( Smaug giganteus ). Like many other areas of grassland all over

273-482: Is controversial. Each scarp represent a flow unit of the flood basalt. During the last glacial period periglacial conditions prevailed in the highlands producing landforms such as blockfields , blockstreams and stone garlands . During the coldest period of the last glacial period—the last glacial maximum — the environment was relatively arid with deep seasonal freezing . The area is believed to have been free of both permafrost and large snow accumulations. There

312-622: Is divided into three main flat regions: the Bogotá savanna , the valleys of Ubaté and Chiquinquirá , and the valleys of Duitama and Sogamoso . The parallel Sierra of Andes delimit one of the world highest plateaux: the Altiplano , (Spanish for "high plain"), Andean Plateau or Bolivian Plateau. It lies in west-central South America, where the Andes are at their widest, is the most extensive area of high plateau on Earth outside of Tibet. The bulk of

351-404: Is some uncertainty if small glaciers ever developed in the shadowy slopes around the highlands. There are numerous species of plants in the highlands. The soil cover in the upland areas is discontinuous and immature. Soils in the Lesotho Highlands differ according to the host rock (basalt) and the influence of freeze and thaw processes; generally they are dominated by mollisols . Some sectors of

390-655: Is sometimes called the Roof of Africa due to its height and large area. Another example is the Highveld which is the portion of the South African inland plateau which has an altitude above approximately 1,500 metres, but below 2,100 metres, thus excluding the Lesotho mountain regions. It is home to some of the largest South African urban agglomerations . In Egypt are the Giza Plateau and Galala Mountain , which

429-545: Is the Scottish Highlands . Plateaus are classified according to their surrounding environment. The highest African plateau is the Ethiopian Highlands which cover the central part of Ethiopia. It forms the largest continuous area of its altitude in the continent, with little of its surface falling below 1,500 metres (4,921 ft), while the summits reach heights of up to 4,550 metres (14,928 ft). It

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468-572: Is the home of more than 70 million people. The Western Plateau , part of the Australian Shield , is an ancient craton covering much of the continent's southwest, an area of some 700,000 square kilometres. It has an average elevation between 305 and 460 metres. The North Island Volcanic Plateau is an area of high land occupying much of the centre of the North Island of New Zealand, with volcanoes, lava plateaus, and crater lakes,

507-739: Is the portion of the South African inland plateau which has an altitude above roughly 1,500 m (4,900 ft), but below 2,100 m (6,900 ft), thus excluding the Lesotho mountain regions to the south-east of the Highveld. It is home to some of the country's most important commercial farming areas, as well as its largest concentration of metropolitan centres, especially the Gauteng conurbation , which accommodates one-third of South Africa's population. The Highveld constitutes almost

546-586: The Drakensberg ) rises to over 3000 m and forms the boundary between KwaZulu-Natal and Lesotho. The latter mountainous region is, however, not generally referred to as Highveld, whose boundary at this point runs just inside the Lesotho-Free State border, about 2,000 m (6,600 ft). From its eastern boundary, the Highveld slopes gently downwards to be bounded by the Great Karoo to

585-895: The Deccan Plateau (≈1,900,000 km (730,000 sq mi), elevation 300–600 metres (980–1,970 ft)). A large plateau in North America is the Colorado Plateau , which covers about 337,000 km (130,000 sq mi) in Colorado , Arizona , New Mexico , and Utah . In northern Arizona and southern Utah the Colorado Plateau is bisected by the Colorado River and the Grand Canyon . This came to be over 10 million years ago,

624-530: The grassland acts as a natural filter, providing sources of clean water. Naturally occurring vegetation in the Highveld consists of different types of well-established grassland depending on the varying amounts of rainfall across the area: subtropical and temperate grassland , with true savannah not dominating the ecosystem until more tropical latitudes. The major grass species are Hyparrhenia hirta and Sporobolus pyramidalis and among these are other grasses and herbs. Trees and shrubs never thrived due to

663-567: The " Roof of the World ", which is still being formed by the collisions of the Indo-Australian and Eurasian tectonic plates . The Tibetan Plateau covers approximately 2,500,000 km (970,000 sq mi), at about 5,000 m (16,000 ft) above sea level. The plateau is sufficiently high to reverse the Hadley cell convection cycles and to drive the monsoons of India towards

702-688: The Altiplano lies within Bolivian and Peruvian territory while its southern parts lie in Chile. The Altiplano plateau hosts several cities like Puno, Oruro, El Alto and La Paz the administrative seat of Bolivia. Northeastern Altiplano is more humid than the Southwestern, the latter of which hosts several salares , or salt flats, due to its aridity. At the Bolivia-Peru border lies Lake Titicaca ,

741-541: The Central Plateau of the Great Escarpment . This is because it is capped by a 1400 m thick layer of erosion resistant lava which welled up and spread across most of Southern Africa when it was still part of Gondwana. Most of this lava has eroded away together with a layer of Karoo sedimentary rocks several kilometres thick on top of which the lava was poured out 182 million years ago. Only

780-730: The Free State, sometimes interrupted by rocky ridges such as the Witwatersrand , the Magaliesberg , and Vredefort Dome . The Vaal River and its tributaries form the main water drainage system of the Highveld. Tributaries of the Orange River drain the most southerly regions of the Highveld. The Highveld rainy season occurs in summer, with substantial afternoon thunderstorms being typical occurrences in November, December, and January. Frost occurs in winter. Cities located on

819-589: The Highveld include Johannesburg , Pretoria , Bloemfontein , Vereeniging , Welkom , Carletonville , and the cities of the West Rand and East Rand . The diamond-mining city of Kimberley lies on the border of the Highveld and the southeastern Kalahari. About half of the gold ever produced in the world has been mined on the Highveld since 1880. The largest deposits are located in the Witwatersrand, which centres on Johannesburg, with smaller deposits in

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858-525: The Lesotho Highlands are part of the Drakensberg alti-montane grasslands and woodlands ecoregion . The Lesotho Highlands are one of the endemic bird areas of the world . The Drakensberg Rockjumper is an endemic bird species of the Lesotho Highlands and areas surrounding them in South Africa . The Lesotho Highlands Water Project (LHWP) is an ongoing water supply and hydropower project in

897-677: The Mpumalanga Lowveld , (containing, amongst others, the Kruger National Park ). Another well defined boundary is to its north where the Magaliesberg separates the Highveld from the Bushveld. The continuation of the Great Escarpment to the south separates the Highveld from KwaZulu-Natal. The south-eastern portion of the Great Escarpment (that portion of the Great Escarpment most commonly referred to as

936-721: The North Rim of the Grand Canyon is at an elevation of about 2,450 m (8,040 ft) above sea level , and the South Rim of the Grand Canyon is about 2,150 m (7,050 ft) above sea level. At its deepest, the Colorado River is about 1,830 m (6,000 ft) below the level of the North Rim. Another high-altitude plateau in North America is the Mexican Plateau . With an area of 601,882 km (232,388 sq mi) and average height of 1,825 metres, it

975-600: The area of the Highlands. Developed in partnership between the governments of Lesotho and South Africa, it comprises a system of several large dams and tunnels throughout the territory of both countries. The project allegedly is said to have had so far negative social and environmental effects. 29°0′0″S 28°30′0″E  /  29.00000°S 28.50000°E  / -29.00000; 28.50000 Highveld The Highveld ( Afrikaans : Hoëveld, pronounced [ˈɦuəfælt] , lit.   ' High Field ' )

1014-761: The crust. Tectonic plateaus are formed by tectonic plate movements which cause uplift, and are normally of a considerable size, and a fairly uniform altitude. Examples are the Deccan Plateau in India and the Meseta Central on the Iberian Peninsula . Plateaus can also be formed by the erosional processes of glaciers on mountain ranges, leaving them sitting between the mountain ranges. Water can also erode mountains and other landforms down into plateaus. Dissected plateaus are highly eroded plateaus cut by rivers and broken by deep narrow valleys. An example

1053-468: The frequent fires that occurred in the dry season and the heavy grazing (once by wild animals and now by livestock ). The Highveld is home to a number of endangered animals, including straw-coloured fruit bats ; Africa's largest snake, the African rock python ( Python sebae ); mountain zebras ; and South Africa's national bird, the blue crane ( Anthropoides paradiseus ). The only endemic bird species

1092-674: The gods" in the native tongue of the Pemon , the Indigenous people who inhabit the Gran Sabana . Tepuis can be considered minute plateaus and tend to be found as isolated entities rather than in connected ranges, which makes them the host of a unique array of endemic plant and animal species. Some of the most outstanding tepuis are Neblina , Autana , Auyan and Mount Roraima . They are typically composed of sheer blocks of Precambrian quartz arenite sandstone that rise abruptly from

1131-420: The highlands has a very rugged mountainous appearance, both from the ground and from the air. The eastern Lesotho Highlands contain numerous terraces and scarp faces developed on ancient flood basalt . The form and development of terraces is controlled by rock structure . The terraces are pediments where cryogenic processes are active. The terraces may be referred as cryoplanation terraces albeit this term

1170-492: The jungle, giving rise to spectacular natural scenery. Auyán-tepui is the source of Angel Falls , the world's tallest waterfall . The Colombian capital city of Bogota sits on an Andean plateau known as the Altiplano Cundiboyacense roughly the size of Switzerland. Averaging a height of 2,600 m (8,500 ft) above sea level, this northern Andean plateau is situated in the country's eastern range and

1209-601: The most notable of which is the country's largest lake, Lake Taupō . The plateau stretches approximately 100 km east to west and 130 km north to south. The majority of the plateau is more than 600 metres above sea level. A tepui ( / ˈ t ɛ p w i / ), or tepuy ( Spanish: [teˈpuj] ), is a table-top mountain or mesa found in the Guiana Highlands of South America, especially in Venezuela and western Guyana . The word tepui means "house of

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1248-442: The north-western United States is an example. They may be formed by upwelling of volcanic magma or extrusion of lava. The underlining mechanism in forming plateaus from upwelling starts when magma rises from the mantle , causing the ground to swell upward. In this way, large, flat areas of rock are uplifted to form a plateau. For plateaus formed by extrusion, the rock is built up from lava spreading outward from cracks and weak areas in

1287-619: The northern Free State near Welkom and Virginia . The Highveld is also exceedingly rich in diamonds , coal , vanadium , and manganese . The pollution in this region is also very high principally due to coal thermal power stations producing nitrogen oxide and sulfur dioxide . Agriculture on the Highveld is generally dominated by extensive grain production and the grazing of beef cattle , with more intensive production of maize , wheat , sorghum , citrus fruits , groundnuts , sunflowers , and vegetables , occurring in irrigated areas and farmland closer to urban areas. The peat base of

1326-678: The south, the Kalahari desert to the west, the Bushveld to the north, the Mpumalanga Lowveld to the northeast, KwaZulu-Natal to the east, and the Lesotho Highlands, or Mountains , to the southeast. The Highveld covers an area of almost 400,000 km (150,000 sq mi), or roughly 30% of South Africa's land area. The Highveld terrain is generally devoid of mountains, consisting of rolling plains, especially in

1365-866: The south. The Deosai Plains in Pakistan are situated at an average elevation of 4,114 meters (13,497 ft) above sea level. They are considered to be the second highest plateaus in the world. Other major plateaus in Asia are: Najd on the Arabian Peninsula , elevation 762 to 1,525 m (2,500 to 5,003 ft), Armenian Highlands (≈400,000 km (150,000 sq mi), elevation 900–2,100 metres (3,000–6,900 ft)), Iranian Plateau (≈3,700,000 km (1,400,000 sq mi), elevation 300–1,500 metres (980–4,920 ft)), Anatolian Plateau , Mongolian Plateau (≈2,600,000 km (1,000,000 sq mi), elevation 1,000–1,500 metres (3,300–4,900 ft)), and

1404-480: The surrounding coastline through enormous glaciers . The polar ice cap is so massive that the echolocation measurements of ice thickness have shown that large areas are below sea level . But, as the ice melts, the land beneath will rebound through isostasy and ultimately rise above sea level. The largest and highest plateau in the world is the Tibetan Plateau , sometimes metaphorically described as

1443-573: The whole of the Free State , and Gauteng Provinces, and portions of the surrounding areas: the western rim of Lesotho, and portions of the Eastern Cape , Northern Cape , North West , Limpopo , and Mpumalanga Provinces of South Africa. The highest part of the Highveld, around 2,100 m (6,900 ft), is its northeastern well-defined boundary, where the plateau escarpment (the Mpumalanga Drakensberg ) separates it from

1482-777: The world, the Highveld is excellent agricultural land and most of the area has been converted for farming. The grassland areas now remaining in the natural state are in various nature reserves, which, although a small portion of the Highveld, are still the largest areas of remaining grassland in South Africa . The protected areas include Suikerbosrand Nature Reserve , Verloren Valei Nature Reserve , Nooitgedacht Dam Nature Reserve , Bronkhorstspruit Dam Nature Reserve, Vaal Dam Nature Reserve, and Koppies Dam Nature Reserves and Willem Pretorius Game Reserve . 27°S 28°E  /  27°S 28°E  / -27; 28 Plateau In geology and physical geography ,

1521-605: Was once called Gallayat Plateaus, rising 3,300 ft above sea level. Another very large plateau is the icy Antarctic Plateau , which is sometimes referred to as the Polar Plateau or King Haakon VII Plateau, home to the geographic South Pole and the Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station , which covers most of East Antarctica where there are no known mountains but rather 3,000 m (9,800 ft) high of superficial ice and which spreads very slowly toward

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