Portal:Mountains

Portal

WikiProject

Discussion

Introduction

View of the south side of the Santa Catalina Mountains as seen from Tucson, Arizona.

A mountain is an elevated portion of the Earth's crust, generally with steep sides that show significant exposed bedrock. Although definitions vary, a mountain may differ from a plateau in having a limited summit area, and is usually higher than a hill, typically rising at least 300 metres (980 ft) above the surrounding land. A few mountains are isolated summits, but most occur in mountain ranges.

Mountains are formed through tectonic forces, erosion, or volcanism, which act on time scales of up to tens of millions of years. Once mountain building ceases, mountains are slowly leveled through the action of weathering, through slumping and other forms of mass wasting, as well as through erosion by rivers and glaciers.

High elevations on mountains produce colder climates than at sea level at similar latitude. These colder climates strongly affect the ecosystems of mountains: different elevations have different plants and animals. Because of the less hospitable terrain and climate, mountains tend to be used less for agriculture and more for resource extraction, such as mining and logging, along with recreation, such as mountain climbing and skiing.

The highest mountain on Earth is Mount Everest in the Himalayas of Asia, whose summit is 8,850 m (29,035 ft) above mean sea level. The highest known mountain on any planet in the Solar System is Olympus Mons on Mars at 21,171 m (69,459 ft). The tallest mountain including submarine terrain is Mauna Kea in Hawaii from its underwater base at 9,330 m (30,610 ft) and some scientists consider it to be the tallest on earth. (Full article...)

Show new selections below (purge)

Selected mountain-related landform

Large dirt cones on Sólheimajökull, Island

A dirt cone is a type of depositional glacial feature. Dirt cones are not actually made entirely of dirt. They have a core of ice, snow, or firn that gets covered with material and insulated. The material, if it is thick enough, will protect the underlying core from ablation. The thickness of material needed to insulate the core is called the “critical thickness.” If the material is less thick than the critical thickness, it will actually speed up erosion of the core through ablation. This is called “indirect ablation.” The cone would then begin melting and shrinking away. (Full article...)

More mountain landforms

Selected mountain range

Highest peaks of the Ortler Alps

The Ortler Alps (Italian: Alpi dell'Ortles ; German: Ortler-Alpen; Romansh: Alps da l'Ortler) are a mountain range of the mountain group in the Central Eastern Alps, in Italy and Switzerland. (Full article...)

More mountain ranges

Selected mountain type

In volcanology, a lava dome is a circular, mound-shaped protrusion resulting from the slow extrusion of viscous lava from a volcano. Dome-building eruptions are common, particularly in convergent plate boundary settings. Around 6% of eruptions on Earth form lava domes. The geochemistry of lava domes can vary from basalt (e.g. Semeru, 1946) to rhyolite (e.g. Chaiten, 2010) although the majority are of intermediate composition (such as Santiaguito, dacite-andesite, present day) The characteristic dome shape is attributed to high viscosity that prevents the lava from flowing very far. This high viscosity can be obtained in two ways: by high levels of silica in the magma, or by degassing of fluid magma. Since viscous basaltic and andesitic domes weather fast and easily break apart by further input of fluid lava, most of the preserved domes have high silica content and consist of rhyolite or dacite.

Existence of lava domes has been suggested for some domed structures on the Moon, Venus, and Mars, e.g. the Martian surface in the western part of Arcadia Planitia and within Terra Sirenum. (Full article...)

More mountain types

Selected climbing article

BMC headquarters in Manchester

The British Mountaineering Council (BMC) is the national representative body for England and Wales that exists to protect the freedoms and promote the interests of climbers, hill walkers and mountaineers, including ski-mountaineers. The BMC are also recognised by government as the national governing body for competition climbing. (Full article...)

More climbing articles

edit

Related portals

General images

The following are images from various mountain-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1A stand of mountain birch at around 750 m in Trollheimen, typical of Scandinavian subalpine forests (from Montane ecosystems)
Image 2The city of La Paz reaches up to 4,000 metres (13,000 ft) in elevation. (from Mountain)
Image 3Climbers ascending Mount Rainier looking at Little Tahoma Peak (from Mountaineering)
Image 4Mountaineers climbing in South Tyrol (from Mountain)
Image 5Mountaineers, c. 1900 (from Mountaineering)
Image 6The Namcha Barwa Himal, east part of the Himalayas as seen from space by Apollo 9 (from Mountain range)
Image 7Chimborazo, Ecuador, whose summit is the point farthest away from the Earth's center (from Mountain)
Image 8Tropical montane forest at around 2,000 m in Malaysia (from Montane ecosystems)
Image 9The Ocean Ridge, the world's longest mountain range (chain) (from Mountain range)
Image 10Antique climbing tools (from Mountaineering)
Image 11Montes Apenninus on the Moon was formed by an impact event. (from Mountain range)
Image 12Mount Everest, Earth's highest mountain (from Mountain)
Image 13Everest is highest from sea level (green), Mauna Kea is highest from its base (orange), Cayambe is farthest from Earth's axis (pink) and Chimborazo is farthest from Earth's centre (blue) (from Mountain)
Image 14Distribution of mountains by location and elevation (from Mountain)
Image 15The Catskills in Upstate New York represent an eroded plateau. (from Mountain)
Image 16British mountaineer William Cecil Slingsby became known as the father of Norwegian mountaineering and contributed greatly to its popularization with his classic book Norway, the Northern Playground (from Mountaineering)
Image 17Iranian oak scrub in the Zagros Mountains (from Montane ecosystems)
Image 18Waimea Canyon, Hawaii, is known for its montane vegetation. (from Montane ecosystems)
Image 19Fixed lines and ladders are distinguishing characteristics of expedition style mountaineering (from Mountaineering)
Image 20Winter campers bivouaced in the snow (from Mountaineering)
Image 21Pirin Mountain, Bulgaria, part of the fault-block Rila-Rhodope massif (from Mountain)
Image 22Alpine flora near Cascade Pass (from Montane ecosystems)
Image 23A subalpine lake in the Cascade Range, Washington, United States (from Montane ecosystems)
Image 24An alpine mire in the Swiss Alps (from Mountain)
Image 25The Dolomite Mountains, Italy, in summer. The climate of the Dolomites is characterized by short but warm and mild summers, while winters are long and very cold. (from Mountain)
Image 26Choppering out the injured – with Mt. Forbes in the background (from Mountain rescue)
Image 27Mont Blanc in Aosta Valley, Italy, the highest point in the European Union (from Mountain)
Image 28Illustration of mountains that developed on a fold that has been thrust (from Mountain)
Image 29Cabane du Trient, a mountain hut in the Swiss Alps (from Mountaineering)
Image 30Mountaineers proceed across snow fields on South Tyrol; other climbers are visible further up the slopes. (from Mountaineering)
Image 31The Andes, the longest mountain range on the surface of the Earth, have a dramatic impact on the climate of South America (from Mountain range)
Image 32Edward Whymper (1840–1911), painting by Lance Calkin (from Mountaineering)
Image 33Fuji volcano (from Mountain)
Image 34Climber approaching the summit of Manaslu at 8,163 metres (from Mountaineering)
Image 35Stretcher box in Cumbria, England, prepositioned equipment saves mountain rescue teams having to trudge up mountains with it. (from Mountain rescue)
Image 36Temperate montane forest in Bavaria, Germany (from Montane ecosystems)
Image 37The northern Urals at high latitude and elevation have an alpine climate and barren ground. (from Mountain)
Image 38Edmund Hillary (left) and Tenzing Norgay after successfully completing the first ascent of Mount Everest, 29 May 1953
Image 39Edelweiss, a plant associated with mountain sports (from Mountaineering)
Image 40Car of Horská služba (Czech Republic) (from Mountain rescue)
Image 41Alpine landscape below Malyovitsa Peak, Rila Mountain, Bulgaria (from Montane ecosystems)
Image 42This 1848 "Sketch showing the actual elevation of the Snow Line in different Latitudes" by Alexander Keith Johnston shows the snow lines of mountains in America, Europe and Asia (from Snow line)

Selected skiing article

Biathletes in the shooting area of a competition

The biathlon is a winter sport that combines cross-country skiing and rifle shooting. It is treated as a race, with contestants skiing through a cross-country trail whose distance is divided into shooting rounds. The shooting rounds are not timed per se, but depending on the competition, missed shots result in extra distance or time being added to the contestant's total. (Full article...)

More skiing articles