Battlement Mesa is a large prominent mesa

Mesa

A mesa or table mountain is an elevated area of land with a flat top and sides that are usually steep cliffs. It takes its name from its characteristic table-top shape....

 in western Colorado

Colorado

Colorado is a U.S. state that encompasses much of the Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains...

 in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. It sits along the Garfield

Garfield County, Colorado

Garfield County is the eighth most extensive and the twelfth most populous of the 64 counties of the State of Colorado of the United States. The county population was 43,791 at U.S. Census 2000. The county is named in honor of United States President James A. Garfield...

-Mesa

Mesa County, Colorado

Mesa County is the fourth most extensive and the eleventh most populous of the 64 counties of the state of Colorado in the United States. The county was named for the many large mesas in the area, including Grand Mesa. The county population was 146,723 at the 2010 United States Census. The...

 county line, between the Colorado River to the north and Plateau Creek

Plateau Creek (Colorado)

Plateau Creek is a tributary of the Colorado River, approximately long, located in western Colorado in the United States. It drains a lush cattle ranching valley, known as the Plateau Valley, north of the Grand Mesa and east of Grand Junction....

 to the south.

It is visible south of Interstate 70

Interstate 70

Interstate 70 is an Interstate Highway in the United States that runs from Interstate 15 near Cove Fort, Utah, to a Park and Ride near Baltimore, Maryland. It was the first Interstate Highway project in the United States. I-70 approximately traces the path of U.S. Route 40 east of the Rocky...

, visible between the towns of Rifle

Rifle, Colorado

The City of Rifle is a Home Rule Municipality in Garfield County, Colorado, United States. The population was 6,769 at the 2000 census. Rifle is a regional center of the cattle ranching industry located along Interstate 70 and the Colorado River just east of the Roan Cliffs, which dominate the...

 and Parachute

Parachute, Colorado

The Town of Parachute is a Statutory Town in Garfield County, Colorado, United States. The population was 1,006 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Parachute is located at ....

, stretching for approximately 15 miles (24 km) east-west. The community of Battlement Mesa

Battlement Mesa, Colorado

Battlement Mesa is a census-designated place located in Garfield County, Colorado, United States. The population was 4,471 at the 2010 census...

 along Interstate 70 takes its name from the mesa.

The mesa is similar in geology to the nearby Grand Mesa

Grand Mesa

The Grand Mesa is a large mesa in western Colorado in the United States. It has an area of about and stretches for about east of Grand Junction between the Colorado River and the Gunnison River, its tributary to the south. The north side of the mesa is drained largely by Plateau Creek, a...

 to the south, and to the Roan Cliffs to the north. It consists largely of a layer of basalt

Basalt

Basalt is a common extrusive volcanic rock. It is usually grey to black and fine-grained due to rapid cooling of lava at the surface of a planet. It may be porphyritic containing larger crystals in a fine matrix, or vesicular, or frothy scoria. Unweathered basalt is black or grey...

 atop underlying layers of sedimentary rock

Sedimentary rock

Sedimentary rock are types of rock that are formed by the deposition of material at the Earth's surface and within bodies of water. Sedimentation is the collective name for processes that cause mineral and/or organic particles to settle and accumulate or minerals to precipitate from a solution....

, including a layer of the Green River Formation

Green River Formation

The Green River Formation is an Eocene geologic formation that records the sedimentation in a group of intermountain lakes. The sediments are deposited in very fine layers, a dark layer during the growing season and a light-hue inorganic layer in winter. Each pair of layers is called a varve and...

.