MESETA CENTRAL

great interior plateau (meseta) of the Iberian Peninsula. With Madrid at its centre, it extends over 81,000 square miles (210,000 square km) and has an average elevation of 2,300 feet (700 m). It constitutes the oldest and most complex geologic formation of the peninsula. Its western slope is gently inclined and forms the river basins of the Douro, Tagus, and Guadiana. The other borders rise abruptly into the Cantabrian Mountains (north) and a series of ranges on the east. A certain symmetry is provided by the tectonic troughs of the Ebro in the northeast and the Guadalquivir in the south, overlooked by various ranges on the east and by the Sierra Morena on the south. The Meseta Central is divided by the block mountains in the centre of the peninsula into the northern high basin of Old Castile and the lower plateaus of New Castile and Extremadura to the south. There is also contrast in vegetation and economy between the western outcrops of crystalline rocks with poor soils and the eastern plains of limestones and marls that form the major agricultural zones. The southeastern section of the Meseta Central is occupied by the region of La Mancha.