Editing Great Plains (section)

=== Southern Great Plains ===
[[File:Flickr - Nicholas T - Skewed.jpg|thumb|Short-grass prairie near the front range of the Rockies in Colorado]]
[[File:Mt-scott.png|thumb|View of [[Lake Lawtonka]] and wind turbines from [[Mount Scott (Oklahoma)|Mount Scott]], Oklahoma]]
The southern section of the Great Plains, between latitudes 35.5° and 25.5°, lies in western [[Texas]], eastern [[New Mexico]], and western [[Oklahoma]]. Like the central section, it is for the most part a dissected fluviatile plain. However, the lower lands which surround it on all sides place it in such strong relief that it stands up as a table-land, known from the time of Mexican occupation as the [[Llano Estacado]]. It measures roughly {{cvt|150|mi}} east-west and {{cvt|400|mi}} north-south. It is of very irregular outline, narrowing to the south. Its altitude is {{cvt|5500|ft}} at the highest western point, nearest the mountains whence its gravels were supplied. From there, it slopes southeastward at a decreasing rate, first about {{cvt|12|ft}}, then about {{cvt|7|ft/mi}}, to its eastern and southern borders, where it is {{cvt|2000|ft}} in altitude. Like the High Plains farther north, it is extraordinarily smooth.<ref name=EB1911/>

It is very dry, except for occasional shallow and temporary water sheets after rains. Llano is separated from the plains on the north by the mature consequent valley of the [[Canadian River]], and from the mountains on the west by the broad and probably mature valley of the [[Pecos River]]. On the east, it is strongly undercut by the retrogressive erosion of the headwaters of the Red, Brazos, and Colorado rivers of Texas and presents a ragged escarpment approximately {{cvt|500|to|800|ft}} high, overlooking the central denuded area of that state. There, between the Brazos and Colorado rivers, occurs a series of isolated outliers capped by limestone that underlies both the [[Llano Uplift]] on the west and the [[Grand Prairies]] escarpment on the east. The southern and narrow part of the table-land, called the [[Edwards Plateau]], is more dissected than the rest, and falls off to the south in a frayed-out fault scarp. This scarp overlooks the coastal plain of the [[Rio Grande]] [[embayment]]. The central denuded area, east of the Llano, resembles the east-central section of the plains in exposing older rocks. Between these two similar areas, in the space limited by the Canadian and Red Rivers, rise the subdued forms of the [[Wichita Mountains]] in [[Oklahoma]], the westernmost member of the Ouachita system.<ref name=EB1911/>