The Puerco River is the plateau's border on the south and southeast; at the northwest, the Black Mesa is the northwest border, and the north of the Defiance Plateau is bounded by the south of the Chinle Valley, where Chinle Creek flows north to meet the San Juan River in southeast Utah.

The north terminus region of the Defiance Plateau contains three canyons, with watercourses flowing due-west, as headwaters of Chinle Creek.

At the plateau's southeast, on Black Creek lies the site of Window Rock, Arizona, the Navajo Nation capitol.

The south perimeter of the Defiance Plateau is bordered by the Puerco River, flowing southwest from the Continental Divide in northwest New Mexico.

The northwest of the Defiance Plateau merges into the southeast of the Black Mesa, (southeast-trending, the same trendline as the Painted Desert).

Northeast and east are the mountain ranges that trend southward, and become the eastern parts of the Defiance Plateau.

The water divide separating the Chinle Creek watershed, (southeast, with Canyon de Chelly), is 3-mi[3] north-northeast of Sawmill.

The Permian beds rest unconformably on Proterozoic gneiss and granite, showing that the uplift existed in the Pennsylvanian and was stripped of sedimentary cover by erosion.