Portal:Mountains

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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). (Full article...)

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The Langkofel Group in the Dolomites of the Italian Alps, with the clearly visible Langkofel Col (*Langkofelscharte*) left of centre

A col in geomorphology is the lowest point on a mountain ridge between two peaks. It may also be called a gap or pass. Particularly rugged and forbidding cols in the terrain are usually referred to as notches. They are generally unsuitable as mountain passes, but are occasionally crossed by mule tracks or climbers' routes. Derived from the French col ("collar, neck") from Latin collum, "neck", the term tends to be associated more with mountain than hill ranges. The distinction with other names for breaks in mountain ridges such as saddle, wind gap or notch is not sharply defined and may vary from place to place. Many double summits are separated by prominent cols.

The height of a summit above its highest col (called the key col) is effectively a measure of a mountain's topographic prominence. (Full article...)

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Monument at the summit of Fansipan

Fansipan (Vietnamese: Phan Xi Păng, listen) is a mountain in Vietnam. Its height was 3,143 metres (10,312 ft) in 1909, and it presently stands at 3,147.3 metres (10,326 ft). It is the highest mountain on the Indochinese peninsula (comprising Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia), hence its nickname, "the Roof of Indochina". It is located in the Lào Cai province of the Northwest region of Vietnam, nine kilometres (5+1⁄2 miles) southwest of Sa Pa, in the Hoang Lien Son mountain range. Administratively, it is shared between Tam Đường District, Lai Châu and Sa Pa town. (Full article...)

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A nunatak (from Inuit nunataq) is the summit or ridge of a mountain that protrudes from an ice field or glacier that otherwise covers most of the mountain or ridge. They often form natural pyramidal peaks. Isolated nunataks are also called glacial islands, and smaller nunataks rounded by glacial action may be referred to as rognons.

The word is of Greenlandic origin and has been used in English since the 1870s. (Full article...)

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Selected climbing article

Ape index, ape factor, or gorilla index is slang or jargon used to describe a measure of the ratio of an individual's arm span relative to their height. A typical ratio is 1, as identified by the Roman writer, architect and engineer Vitruvius prior to 15 BC. Vitruvius noted that a "well made man" has an arm span equal to his height, as exemplified in Leonardo da Vinci's c. 1492 drawing, the Vitruvian Man. In rock climbing it is believed that an ape index greater than one, where the arm span is greater than the height, provides for a competitive advantage, and some climbers have expressed the belief that exercise can result in an improved ratio, although this view is somewhat controversial. (Full article...)

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General images

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

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

Selected skiing article

Combined is an event in alpine ski racing. The event format has changed within the last 30 years. A traditional combined competition is a two-day event consisting of one run of downhill and two runs of slalom; each discipline takes place on a separate day. The winner is the skier with the fastest aggregate time. Until the 1990s, a complicated point system was used to determine placings in the combined event. Since then, a modified version, called either a "super combined" (with a downhill as the speed event) or an "Alpine combined" (with a super-G as the speed event), has been run as an aggregate time event consisting of two runs: first, a one-run speed event and then only one run of slalom, with both portions held on the same day. (Full article...)

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