Practice Quiz: Utah Landforms

Notable Landforms of Utah

alluvial fan: the place where a stream deposits sediment when it pours out from a canyon and fans out upon a flat area. Since the soil is loose and part of a natural drainage system, it can often move and flood, making it a dangerous place to build. Many areas near canyons in Utah have alluvial soil. 

butte: an isolated hill or mountain with steep or cliff-like sides whose area on top its usually smaller than a mesa. The East Mitten and West Mitten buttes of Monument Valley on the Utah-Arizona border are world famous. 

canyon: a deep narrow valley with steep sides and often with a stream flowing through it. Canyons often separate different mountain peaks, and in Utah they range in size to the very large Little Cottonwood Canyon by Salt Lake City and very narrow slot canyons, or wadis. 

hoodoo: a natural column of rock in western North America often in fantastic form. Unlike a spire (pinnacle), hoodoos often have knobby, uneven edges, somewhat like a totem pole. Many people love to visit Bryce Canyon and Goblin Valley for their famous hoodoos. 

mesa: an isolated relatively flat-topped elevated area, where the platform-like area on top is usually larger than a butte and smaller than a plateau. Southern Utah's red rock country is famous for its buttes, mesas, and plateaus. 

plateau: a usually large land area having a relatively level surface and which rises sharply above the surrounding land on at least one side. The Colorado Plateau region of eastern and southeastern Utah rises above the Great Basin to the west. 

salt flat: a salt-encrusted flat area resulting from evaporation of a former body of water. The Bonneville Salt Flats of the Great Salt Lake Desert are a famous example. 

spire: also called a pinnacle, it is a natural column of rock with a generally smooth outline as it narrows toward the top (see "hoodoo" above). 

wadi: the Arabic word for a shallow usually steep-walled canyon in a desert region. People in Utah usually call these slot canyons, and they are a favorite of tourists, like the Narrows in Zion National Park. They can also be prone to flash flooding and so can also be very dangerous. 

Notable Bodies of Water in Utah

aquifer: a layer of permeable rock that holds water underground. 

irrigation canal: a trench that people dig to divert water from a natural water source, such as a stream or river, to water farm fields in dry areas. 

lake: a natural body of water that often forms in a flat area and is surrounded by dry land. 

reservoir: an artificial body of water like a lake that people create to store water for various reasons, often created by placing a large concrete dam across a valley or canyon. 

river: a natural stream, usually carrying a large volume of water. Large rivers usually begin as small streams in mountainous or high-elevation areas. For this reason, streams are more likely to contain larger, sharper rocks, and rivers are more likely to have smaller, smoother rocks. 

stream: a body of running water (such as a river or creek) that is generally small and narrow (see "river" above). In Utah, streams are often called "creeks."

Definitions adapted from Merriam-Webster.com.