1. Key Question: How do plateau landscapes form? Key Words:
Plateau(x)
Undercutting

2. What is a plateau? STARTER: In pairs look at the photo and make
A definition for what a plateau is (post it on board)
Think of some examples
a plateau is an extensive area of flat ground raised above the surrounding area.

3. ….they can refer to very large areas e.g. the Tibet plateau,
or they can refer to smaller areas e.g. Table Mountain, Cape Town, S. Africa

4. How do plateau form?
They can be formed by any strong, resistant rock type.
From the list below decide which are most to least likely to form plateau?
Well cemented sandstone
Basalt
LEAST LIKELY
Limestone
Chalk
Extension explain why!
Mudstone
Granite
MOST LIKELY

5. Basalt also forms plateau!
Inner Hebrides flood basalt plateau
e.g. Staffa and Mull.
What process makes the cliffs so steep?
UNDERMINIG !!!

6. 1. Draw the diagram on p.44 of Basic Mapskills
Limestone also forms plateau e.g. Ingleborough, Yorkshire Dales
1. Draw the diagram on p.44 of Basic Mapskills
Millstone Grit (Sandstone)
Carboniferous Limestone
2. Explain why Ingleborough has
formed a limestone
Plateau?
Impermeable slates
Think about the:
EXTENSION:
why do caves form within the limestone?
Why has the footpath been laid?
Dip of strata.
What the rock is made of.
Resistance of Strata.
Permeability of Strata.

7. Now complete the activities on the worksheet.
Ethiopian Plateau

8. Ethiopian Plateau Dartmoor Ethiopian plateau and Dartmoor.
Plenary: Compare and contrast the geology and scenery of the
Ethiopian plateau and Dartmoor.
Ethiopian Plateau
Dartmoor
upland
Horizontal strata
Freeze-thaw weathering
Dry so little chemical weathering
Cliffs and steep sided gorges
plutonic
Erosion by rivers
No strata!
Onion skin weathering
Wet so lots of chemical weathering
Rounded slopes
volcanic
Wind erosion

9. Landscapes formed from large igneous intrusions
Cairngorms, Scotland:
A 400 million year old granite pluton

10. Plutonic rocks cool … (where?) Volcanic rocks cool… (where?)
underground
On the surface

11. Cornwall is famous for it’s granite moorlands of Dartmoor and Bodmin Moor
So what’s happening underground? Granite shows as areas of lower gravity.
What does the gravity data indicate to you?
That there is a larger area of granite beneath

12. E Section W-E across the
Copy out the diagram and label : pluton, dyke feeding pluton,
batholith, erosion surface, exposed granite and country rock
Section W-E across the
Cornubian batholith E
Haig Fras
Island
Dartmoor
Bodmin Moor
Land’s End
Scilly Isles
©Slide by CMC
50km

13. Dartmoor Red herring alert!
Describe the landscape choosing from the descriptors below:
Steep slopes, moderately steep slopes, gentle slopes, flat land, low land, upland, thin acid soils, thick clay soils, limey soils, caves, tors, swallow holes, influenced by angle of dip, no bedded rocks so no strata, uniform scenery, varied scenery, moorland, fine grained rocks, coarse grained rocks.
Red herring alert!

14. Chemical weathering What type of weathering is important on Dartmoor;
a wet area with acidic soil and temperatures above
freezing for most of the time?
Chemical weathering

15. Recall…Chemical weathering
of granite
Clay + quartz grains+ dissolved minerals
Granite + acids