Meanings
- geographyA high-elevation orogenic plateau that once existed during the Tertiary period in what is modern North America’s Great Basin, analogous to today’s high-elevation South American altiplano.
Terming this now-exhumed Late Cretaceous–Eocene hinterland metamorphic belt the Nevadaplano, he estimated that its average elevation probably exceeded 3 km.
2009, W. Gary Ernst, “Rise and Fall of the Nevadaplano”, in International Geology Review, volume 51, numbers 7-8, →DOI, page 5832 more examples
At the peak of its development, the retroarc side of the Cordillera was divided into five tectonomorphic zones, including from west to east the Luning-Fencemaker thrust belt; the central Nevada (or Eureka) thrust belt; a high-elevation plateau (the “Nevadaplano”); the topographically rugged Sevier fold-thrust belt; and the Laramide zone of intraforeland basement uplifts and basins.
2004, Peter G. DeCelles, “Late Jurassic to Eocene evolution of the Cordilleran thrust belt and foreland basin system, western U.S.A.”, in The American Journal of Science, volume 304, number 2, →DOI, archived from the original on 01 Dec 2022, page 105During the Late Cretaceous, central Nevada may have been a high elevation plateau, the Nevadaplano; some geodynamic models of the western US require thickened crust and high elevations during the Mesozoic to drive the subsequent tectonic events of the Cenozoic while other models do not.
2014, Kathryn E. Snell et al., “High elevation of the ‘Nevadaplano’ during the Late Cretaceous”, in Earth and Planetary Science Letters, volume 386, →DOI, page 52
Origin
Blend of Nevada + altiplano. Coined by American geoscientist Peter G. DeCelles in a 2004 paper in the American Journal of Science.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
Nevadaplano. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Nevadaplano
“Nevadaplano.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Nevadaplano. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “Nevadaplano,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Nevadaplano.
Source: Nevadaplano on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.