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Buttes: Standing Isolated Above the Prairie
Butte
/byo͞ot/
Noun
Definition: a flat-topped hill surrounded by a steep escarpment from the bottom of which a slope descends to the plain.
Buttes were created through the process of erosion, the gradual wearing away of the earth by water, wind, and ice.
Buttes were once part of flat, elevated areas of land known as mesas or plateaus. The only difference between a mesa and a butte is its size. Buttes are generally taller than they are wide, while a mesa is a much larger, slightly less elevated feature.
Buttes usually form in arid regions, such as those in the Big Muddy Badlands, Mexico or the southwestern United States. The area of Pilot Butte is arid enough to be able to have a Butte.
Arid regions of the world.
As mentioned earlier, Buttes such as this one were created due to the process of erosion. During the Pleistocene Epoch, also known as the Ice Age, huge ice sheets formed over North America. The massive Laurentide Ice Sheet covered Sasaktchewan and most of Canada. Later, during the interglacial periods, gradual warming caused these sheets to melt. These ice sheets helped to form the buttes, hills, valleys, and other landforms we have today.
The formation of Buttes involve the physical weathering of rock formations. The surface material of a hill or mountain resists wind and water erosion (in this case during the while the underlying material does not. Over time the underlying material is stripping away, leaving an isolated feature with a flat top. Erosion forms the butte in the shape of the hard layer on top.
To simplify this, a butte has a top layer of hard rock and softer rock below that is eroded more easily.
Merrick Butte
The butte in Pilot Butte is a smaller example of the landform. Buttes of all sizes can be found all across arid regions of the world, such as Merrick Butte in Arizona.
Questions You Must Travel to the Site in Order to Answer:
All three questions can be answered by reading the monument atop the hill.
1. Fill in the blank: The Butte Hill is an example of a butte, which is a small ______ ______.
2: How many metres does the Butte sit above the surrounding town?
3: The monument atop the Butte was erected to celebrate what anniversary?
Bonus question: What are some ways humans have used buttes to their advantage?
Optionally, you may wish to post a picture of yourself holding your GPS/phone from the top of the hill to prove you where there! Make sure to not don’t post the answers to the questions in your log!
For more information about Buttes visit:
nationalgeographic.org/butte
universetoday.com/butte
seethesouthwest.com/butte.
For more information about the Ice Age in Saskatchewan visit:
royalsaskmuseum.ca/BigChill.pdf
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