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 metaphorically described as the "roof of the world", which is still being formed by the collisions of the Indo-Australian and Eurasian tectonic plates. The Tibetan plateau covers approximately , at about above sea level. The plateau is sufficiently high enough to reverse the Hadley cell convection cycles and to drive the monsoons of India towards the south. The second-highest plateau is the Deosai Plateau of the Deosai National Park (also known as "Deoasai Plains") at an average elevation of . It is located in the Astore and Skardu districts of Gilgit-Baltistan, in northern Pakistan. Deosai means 'the land of giants'.