Dissected plateau Dissected plateau A dissected plateau is a plateau area that has been severely eroded so that the relief is sharp. Such an area may be referred to as mountainous, but dissected plateaus are distinguishable from orogenic mountain belts by the lack of folding, metamorphism, extensive faulting, or magmatic activity that accompanies orogeny. The Allegheny Plateau, the Cumberland Plateau, the Ozark Plateau, and the Catskill Mountains in the United States and the Blue Mountains in Australia and the Deccan Plateau in India are examples of dissected plateaus formed after regional uplift. These older uplifts have been eroded by creeks and rivers
Plateau de Millevaches large lens-shaped mass of granite, believed to be the result of an intrusion of igneous material in the late Hercynian or Variscan orogeny. As the surrounding, softer material has weathered away, the laccolith has become increasingly exposed. Although not strictly a plateau, depending upon which direction one approaches the area from, the Plateau de Millevaches forms an important kind of step up (or a step down) in the Massif Central. There are a number of definite peaks, the highest being Mont Bessou (976m.), at the southern edge of the massif, near Meymac. The massif is generally densely wooded, with large