Britannica Sources used in this answer

Which plateaus are associated with hot spots in the United States, France, and Africa?

Created from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.

plateau The Columbia Plateau is uniformly covered with basaltic lava flows and spans an area of about 100,000 square miles in Idaho, Washington, and Oregon.

Plateaus caused by the thermal expansion of the lithosphere are typically associated with hot spots. According to geological research, the following plateaus are prominent examples of this association in the specified regions:

United States: The Yellowstone Plateau
France: The Massif Central
Africa: The Ethiopian Plateau

These landforms are created when hot material upwelling in the asthenosphere heats and uplifts the overlying lithosphere. While some other plateaus exist, they are often formed through different geological processes, such as crustal shortening or localized heating that is not yet fully understood.1