Continental plateaus, along with their enclosed basins, account for about 45 percent of the Earth's land surface. The largest plateaus include the continent of Africa, the western plateau of Australia, and the Arabian Peninsula. In North America, plateaus occur along the western mountain system, in Alaska, and west of the Appalachian Highlands. In Europe, plateaus are found in Spain, north of the Alps, in Scandinavia, and in western Russia. There are spectacular plateaus in central Turkey, Iran, Central Asia, and the extensive region covered by the Tibetan Plateau.
Plateaus develop in many ways and occur in a variety of geologic settings.
Lava plateaus are built by the accumulation of basalt released by volcanic activity. Typical examples of these formations can be seen in Ethiopia, Somalia, the western United States, the Paran Basin, Iceland, and the Deccan Plateau of India. Intermontane plateaus are distributed worldwide and include much of Central Asia, part of China's Sichuan Province, Mongolia, Anatolia, Armenia, and Iran. In the United States and Mexico, intermontane plateaus are called basin and range topography and consist of closely spaced, parallel mountain ranges separated by elongated basins. These landforms are found chiefly between the Sierra Nevada and the Rockies in the United States and alongside the Sierra Madre Occidental mountains in Mexico.