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9-713: Red Butte is a butte located in the Kaibab National Forest in Coconino County , Arizona (not to be confused with Red Mountain which is a blown out volcano located a few miles to the south). It is known to the Havasupai nation as Wii'i Gdwiisa , "clenched fist mountain," and is regarded as a sacred site. Red Butte is the most notable feature on the Coconino Plateau between the San Francisco volcanic field and
18-572: A small, relatively flat top; buttes are smaller landforms than mesas , plateaus , and tablelands . The word butte comes from the French word butte , meaning knoll (but of any size); its use is prevalent in the Western United States , including the southwest where mesa ( Spanish for "table") is used for the larger landform. Due to their distinctive shapes, buttes are frequently landmarks in plains and mountainous areas. To differentiate
27-550: Is Thumb Butte , which overlooks the city of Prescott and is the most prominent and distinctive geologic landmark in the vicinity. The Devils Tower in northeastern Wyoming is a laccolithic butte composed of igneous rock rather than sandstone , limestone or other sedimentary rocks . The term butte is sometimes applied more broadly to isolated, steep-sided hills with pointed or craggy, rather than flat, tops. Three notable formations that are either named butte or may be considered buttes even though they do not conform to
36-534: Is listed on the National Historic Lookout Register . Its design is based on the USFS CL 100 plan with modifications. The 14' x 14' cab with tinted windows has a permanent roof overhang for shade. There is a metal catwalk and two cistern tanks for lookout staff water supply. Butte In geomorphology , a butte ( / b juː t / ) is an isolated hill with steep, often vertical sides and
45-843: The Grand Canyon . Its base is formed of sandstones of the Moenkopi Formation . Above that are strata of the Shinarump Conglomerate ; the summit is capped with volcanic rocks. A trail leads to the summit along the west side. The summit affords a good view of the San Francisco Peaks , but because of the slope of the Coconino Plateau, only the uppermost part of the North Rim of the Grand Canyon can be seen. The Red Butte tower
54-587: The Sutter Buttes in California . In many cases, buttes have been given other names that do not use the word butte , for example, Courthouse Rock , Nebraska. Also, some large hills that are technically not buttes have names using the word, examples of which are Kamiak Butte , Chelan Butte and Steptoe Butte in Washington state . Scotts Bluff National Monument Too Many Requests If you report this error to
63-676: The formal geographer's rule are Scotts Bluff in Nebraska which is a collection of five bluffs, Crested Butte , which is a 12,168 ft (3,709 m) mountain in Colorado , and Elephant Butte , which is now an island in Elephant Butte Reservoir in New Mexico . Among the well-known non-flat-topped buttes in the United States are Bear Butte , South Dakota , Black Butte , Oregon , and
72-666: The top is further eroded by abrasion and weathering, the excess material that falls off adds to the scree or talus slope around the base. On a much smaller scale, the same process forms hoodoos . The Mitten Buttes of Monument Valley in the Utah – Arizona state line are two of the most distinctive and widely recognized buttes. Monument Valley and the Mittens provided backgrounds in the scenes of many western-themed films , including seven movies directed by John Ford . Another very well-known and frequently photographed butte in northern Arizona
81-479: The two landforms, geographers use the rule of thumb that a mesa has a top that is wider than its height, while a butte has a top that is narrower than its height. Buttes form by weathering and erosion when hard caprock overlies a layer of less resistant rock that is eventually worn away. The harder rock on top of the butte resists erosion. The caprock provides protection for the less resistant rock below from wind abrasion which leaves it standing isolated. As
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