Plateaus can be formed by a number of processes, including upwelling of volcanic magma, extrusion of lava<span>, and erosion by water and glaciers. Magma rises from the mantle, causing the ground to swell upward; in this way, large, flat areas of rock are uplifted and this uplifted rock forms a plateau.</span>
There are different ways in which plateaus can develop but in each case the creation of the land formation is not an instant geological act as it can take millions of years for these raised, flat areas of land to be built.
One way in which plateaus are created are when magma pushes up towards the surface of the Earth’s crust. The magma does not break through but instead raises a section of the crust up as it rises and creates a plateau. Another way in that can create plateaus is when lava breaks through the Earth’s crust and builds upon itself over and over to form a raised land area.
<span>The most common answer to the question of how plateaus are formed is in that of the effects that millions of years of wind and water erosion can have on land areas. Water, flowing in specific patterns will break down layers of rock over time and carve out channels that will continually dig deeper down. As the water digs its way down, steep slopes are created and that forms the edges of the plateau. Wind affects the land’s layers of rock much in the same way that water does, as the water exposes more layers, the wind erodes the area more and helps in the steepness of the sides that make the base of the plateau.</span>
