Portal:Mountains

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Introduction

Uluguru Mountains, in Tanzania

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). (Full article...)

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Selected mountain-related landform

A drumlin, from the Irish word droimnín ("little ridge"), first recorded in 1833, in the classical sense is an elongated hill in the shape of an inverted spoon or half-buried egg formed by glacial ice acting on underlying unconsolidated till or ground moraine. Assemblages of drumlins are referred to as fields or swarms; they can create a landscape which is often described as having a 'basket of eggs topography'. (Full article...)

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Selected mountain range

The Franklin Range is marked 6 on map.

The Franklin Range is a small mountain range on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada, located just southwest of Robson Bight and Johnstone Strait. It has an area of 200 km² and is a subrange of the Vancouver Island Ranges which in turn form part of the Insular Mountains. The range was named in 1861 by Captain Richards for noted Arctic explorer Rear Admiral Sir John Franklin who died exploring the Arctic and his wife, Lady Franklin. The Cracroft Islands across Johnstone Strait were named for Sophia Cracroft, Sir John's niece who accompanied Lady Franklin on her journey around the world that brought them to British Columbia during the Fraser Gold Rush of 1858. (Full article...)

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A cuesta (from Spanish cuesta "slope") is a hill or ridge with a gentle slope on one side, and a steep slope on the other. In geology the term is more specifically applied to a ridge where a harder sedimentary rock overlies a softer layer, the whole being tilted somewhat from the horizontal. This results in a long and gentle backslope called a dip slope that conforms with the dip of resistant strata, called caprock. Where erosion has exposed the frontslope of this, a steep slope or escarpment occurs. The resulting terrain may be called scarpland. (Full article...)

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A summit is a point on a surface that is higher in elevation than all points immediately adjacent to it. The topographic terms acme, apex, peak (mountain peak), and zenith are synonymous.

The term top (mountain top) is generally used only for a mountain peak that is located at some distance from the nearest point of higher elevation. For example, a big, massive rock next to the main summit of a mountain is not considered a summit. Summits near a higher peak, with some prominence or isolation, but not reaching a certain cutoff value for the quantities, are often considered subsummits (or subpeaks) of the higher peak, and are considered part of the same mountain. A pyramidal peak is an exaggerated form produced by ice erosion of a mountain top. Summit may also refer to the highest point along a line, trail, or route. (Full article...)

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General images

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

Image 1Alpine landscape below Malyovitsa Peak, Rila Mountain, Bulgaria (from Montane ecosystems)
Image 2Waimea Canyon, Hawaii, is known for its montane vegetation. (from Montane ecosystems)
Image 3A subalpine lake in the Cascade Range, Washington, United States (from Montane ecosystems)
Image 4Illustration of mountains that developed on a fold that has been thrust (from Mountain)
Image 5Fixed lines and ladders are distinguishing characteristics of expedition style mountaineering (from Mountaineering)
Image 6Fuji volcano (from Mountain)
Image 7Mountain rescue team members and other services attend to a casualty in Freiburg Germany. (from Mountain rescue)
Image 8Climbers ascending Mount Rainier looking at Little Tahoma Peak (from Mountaineering)
Image 9The Namcha Barwa Himal, east part of the Himalayas as seen from space by Apollo 9 (from Mountain range)
Image 10Cabane du Trient, a mountain hut in the Swiss Alps (from Mountaineering)
Image 11The Catskills in Upstate New York represent an eroded plateau. (from Mountain)
Image 12A stand of mountain birch at around 750 m in Trollheimen, typical of Scandinavian subalpine forests (from Montane ecosystems)
Image 13Edward Whymper (1840–1911), painting by Lance Calkin (from Mountaineering)
Image 14Everest 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 15An alpine mire in the Swiss Alps (from Mountain)
Image 16Mount Everest, Earth's highest mountain (from Mountain)
Image 17Choppering out the injured – with Mt. Forbes in the background (from Mountain rescue)
Image 18Montes Apenninus on the Moon was formed by an impact event. (from Mountain range)
Image 19Alpine flora near Cascade Pass (from Montane ecosystems)
Image 20Stretcher box in Cumbria, England, prepositioned equipment saves mountain rescue teams having to trudge up mountains with it. (from Mountain rescue)
Image 21Mountaineers, c. 1900 (from Mountaineering)
Image 22Tropical montane forest at around 2,000 m in Malaysia (from Montane ecosystems)
Image 23The 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 24The Ocean Ridge, the world's longest mountain range (chain) (from Mountain range)
Image 25British 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 26This 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)
Image 27Chimborazo, Ecuador, whose summit is the point farthest away from the Earth's center (from Mountain)
Image 28The northern Urals at high latitude and elevation have an alpine climate and barren ground. (from Mountain)
Image 29Temperate montane forest in Bavaria, Germany (from Montane ecosystems)
Image 30The city of La Paz reaches up to 4,000 metres (13,000 ft) in elevation. (from Mountain)
Image 31Antique climbing tools (from Mountaineering)
Image 32Iranian oak scrub in the Zagros Mountains (from Montane ecosystems)
Image 33Edelweiss, a plant associated with mountain sports (from Mountaineering)
Image 34Climber approaching the summit of Manaslu at 8,163 metres (from Mountaineering)
Image 35Pirin Mountain, Bulgaria, part of the fault-block Rila-Rhodope massif (from Mountain)
Image 36Winter campers bivouaced in the snow (from Mountaineering)
Image 37Car of Horská služba (Czech Republic) (from Mountain rescue)
Image 38A mountain rescue team in Iran moving a casualty. (from Mountain rescue)
Image 39Mountaineers climbing in South Tyrol (from Mountain)
Image 40Mountaineers proceed across snow fields on South Tyrol; other climbers are visible further up the slopes. (from Mountaineering)

Selected skiing article

Nordic combined is a winter sport in which athletes compete in cross-country skiing and ski jumping. The Nordic combined at the Winter Olympics has been held since the first Winter Olympics in 1924, while the FIS Nordic Combined World Cup has been held since 1983. Many Nordic combined competitions use the Gundersen method, where placement in the ski jumping segment results in time (dis)advantages added to the contestant's total in the cross-country skiing segment (e.g. the ski jumping winner starts the cross-country skiing race at 00:00:00 while the one with the lowest jumping score starts with the longest time penalty). (Full article...)

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