• Mesa
  • Rutog 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.

In Ritu County (Rutog County), the Tibetan language means "the foot of the mountain in the shape of a gun fork". It belongs to Ali area of Tibet Autonomous region, and Ali area has jurisdiction over counties. Located in western Tibet and northwest of Ali Prefecture, it is one of the border counties. It is located between 78 °7km / m el 82 °4m east longitude and 32 °7m / 35 °4' north latitude. The branches of Karakoram Mountains and Gangdise Mountains run across the whole territory and are called "the roof of the roof of the world". The average elevation of the county is about 4500 meters, and the highest elevation is 6800 meters. The people's Government of Ritu County is stationed in Ritu Town, which has jurisdiction over four townships and one town, covering an area of 80300 square kilometers, accounting for about 15% of the total land area of the autonomous region. The existing arable land area is 8614.9 mu, and the grassland area is 70.724 million mu.
Travel Notes In Rutog County