Mesa Mesa Mesa (Spanish and Portuguese for "table") is the American English term for tableland, an elevated area of land with a flat top and sides that are usually steep cliffs. It takes its name from its characteristic table-top shape. It may also be called a table hill, table-topped hill or table mountain. It is larger than a butte, which it otherwise resembles closely. It is a characteristic landform of arid environments, particularly the Western and Southwestern United States in badlands and mountainous regions ranging from Washington and California to the Dakotas, Wyoming, Utah, Oklahoma, and Texas. Examples are also found
Agiapuk River from which the upland rises by gentle slopes to flat-topped hills with elevations of . The western branch occupies a broad depression which for about extends parallel with Grantley Harbor and Port Clarence, from which it is separated by an upland of about elevation. Near its western end, this depression has an altitude of about , and is about wide. The California River drains a part of this depression through a new, deep-cut canyon. The depression is limited on the north by flat-topped mountains, which rise to elevations of . The main part of the Agiapuk emerges from a comparatively