Butte facts for kids
A butte is a type of hill that stands alone. It has very steep sides, often straight up and down, and a small, flat top. Buttes are smaller than other flat-topped landforms like mesas and plateaus.
The word butte comes from a French word meaning "small hill." You'll hear this word a lot in the Western United States. In the southwest, people often use the Spanish word mesa (which means "table") for bigger, flat-topped hills. Buttes are easy to spot because of their unique shapes. They often act as natural landmarks in flat areas or mountains.
To tell a butte from a mesa, think about their tops. A mesa has a top that is wider than its height. A butte, on the other hand, has a top that is narrower than its height.
How Buttes Are Formed
Buttes are created by a process called weathering and erosion. Imagine a sandwich of rocks! Buttes form when a very hard layer of rock, called a caprock, sits on top of softer rock.
Over a long time, wind and water slowly wear away the softer rock underneath. The hard caprock on top protects the rock directly below it from being eroded. This is why the butte stands tall and isolated. As the top layer slowly wears down, small pieces of rock break off. These pieces fall to the bottom, creating a pile of loose rocks around the base. This same process, but on a much smaller scale, also forms cool rock pillars called hoodoos.
Famous Buttes Around the World
Many buttes are famous landmarks. The Mitten Buttes in Monument Valley, located on the border of Utah and Arizona, are some of the most well-known. These buttes have appeared in many western movies, especially those directed by John Ford.
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Another famous butte is Devils Tower in northeastern Wyoming. It's special because it's made of igneous rock (rock formed from cooled lava) instead of sandstone or limestone, which are common in other buttes.
Sometimes, the word butte is used for hills that don't perfectly fit the definition of having a flat top. For example, Scotts Bluff in Nebraska is a group of five bluffs. Crested Butte in Colorado is a tall mountain, about 12,168 ft (3,709 m) high. Elephant Butte in New Mexico is now an island in a reservoir.
Other well-known buttes in the United States include Bear Butte in South Dakota, Black Butte in Oregon, and the Sutter Buttes in California. Some buttes have different names, like Courthouse Rock in Nebraska. Also, some large hills that aren't technically buttes might still have "butte" in their name, such as Kamiak Butte and Steptoe Butte in Washington state.
Gallery
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Qaxaç Qalası or Kachaghakaberd fortress, Khojali District, Azerbaijan
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A butte in Tamanrasset Province, Algeria
See also
In Spanish: Butte para niños
- Caprock Escarpment
- Megalith
- Monadnock
- Monolith
- Potrero
- Table mountain (disambiguation)
- Tepui
- Tuya
- Volcanic plug
