A mesa is an isolated, flat-topped elevation, ridge or hill, which is bounded from all sides by steep escarpments and stands distinctly above a surrounding plain. Mesas characteristically consist of flat-lying soft sedimentary rocks capped by a more resistant layer or layers of harder rock, e.g. shales overlain by sandstones. The resistant layer acts as a caprock that forms the flat summit of a mesa. The caprock can consist of either sedimentary rocks such as sandstone and limestone; dissected lava flows; or a deeply eroded duricrust. Unlike plateau, whose usage does not imply horizontal layers of bedrock, e.g. Tibetan Plateau, the term mesa applies exclusively to the landforms built of flat-lying strata. Instead, flat-topped plateaus are specifically known as tablelands.
Malkang City (formerly Malkang County) is a county-level city under the jurisdiction of Aba Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture in Sichuan Province. it is also the capital of the state. It means "place of vigorous fire" in Tibetan and extends to "place of prosperity and development". Malkang is based on the original Jiarong 18 chieftain Zhuokeji, Songgang, Dangba, Shuomo four chieftain territories as the prototype, also known as the "four soil areas." As of 2016, it covers an area of 6633 square kilometers and has jurisdiction over 4 towns and 10 townships, with a total household registration population of 56166 in 2012. In 2014, the regional GDP reached 2.00253 billion yuan, an increase of 5.3% over 2013. Among them, the added value of the primary industry was 215.02 million yuan, up 5.2%; the added value of the secondary industry was 311.65 million yuan, up 0.6%; and the added value of the tertiary industry was 1.