• Mesa
  • Dingbian County

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.

Dingbian County is located in the northwest of Shaanxi Province, the westernmost end of Yulin City, and the junction of seven counties (banners) of four provinces (regions) of Shaanxi, Gansu, Ningxia and Inner Mongolia. In ancient times, it is said that "Yuyan is connected to the east, Ganliang to the west, Huanqing to the south, pillow desert to the north, Tu Guang Bian long, and Sanqin fortress". It is the northwest gate of Shaanxi Province and the west gate of Yulin City. Since ancient times, merchants have gathered, known as "dry wharf". The county has jurisdiction over 1 subdistrict office, 14 towns and 4 townships. Mineral resources such as oil, natural gas, raw salt, mirabilite, magnesium sulfate and magnesium chloride have many advantages, which are an important part of the energy and heavy chemical industry base in northern Shaanxi. The domestic oil resources are widely distributed, with proven reserves of 1.618 billion tons, making it the largest county in oil production capacity in the country. Dingbian County is also the salt producing area of Shaanxi Province, with 14 salt lakes and a total area of 98 square kilometers. In addition, the whole county
Travel Notes In Dingbian County