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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An arête (/əˈrɛt/ ə-RET; French: [aʁɛt]) is a narrow ridge of rock that separates two valleys. It is typically formed when two glaciers erode parallel U-shaped valleys. Arêtes can also form when two glacial cirques erode headwards towards one another, although frequently this results in a saddle-shaped pass, called a col. The edge is then sharpened by freeze-thaw weathering, and the slope on either side of the arête steepened through mass wasting events and the erosion of exposed, unstable rock. The word arête (French: [aʁɛt]) is actually French for "edge" or "ridge"; similar features in the Alps are often described with the German equivalent term Grat.

Where three or more cirques meet, a pyramidal peak is created. (Full article...)

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The Drakensberg (Zulu: uKhahlamba, Sotho: Maloti, Afrikaans: Drakensberge) is the eastern portion of the Great Escarpment, which encloses the central Southern African plateau. The Great Escarpment reaches its greatest elevation – 2,000 to 3,482 metres (6,562 to 11,424 feet) within the border region of South Africa and Lesotho.

The Drakensberg escarpment stretches for more than 1,000 kilometres (600 miles) from the Eastern Cape Province in the South, then successively forms, in order from south to north, the border between Lesotho and the Eastern Cape and the border between Lesotho and KwaZulu-Natal Province. Thereafter it forms the border between KwaZulu-Natal and the Free State, and next as the border between KwaZulu-Natal and Mpumalanga Province. The escarpment winds north from there, through Mpumalanga, where it includes features such as the Blyde River Canyon, Three Rondavels, and God's Window. It then extends farther north to Hoedspruit in southeastern Limpopo where it is known as 'Klein Drakensberg' by the Afrikaner. From Hoedspruit it extends west to Tzaneen, also in Limpopo Province, where it is known as the Wolkberg Mountains and Iron Crown Mountain. At 2,200 m (7,200 ft) above sea level, the Wolkberg is the highest elevation in Limpopo. The escarpment extends west again and at Mokopane it is known as the Strydpoort Mountains. (Full article...)

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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 climbing article

The main aid climbing systems are the A-grade (usually the "new wave" version) and the C-grade systems. While aid climbing is less popular as a standalone pursuit, aid techniques remain important in big wall climbing and alpine climbing, where the level of difficulties can vary significantly on long routes, and thus the use of aid in places is still common (e.g. The Nose on El Capitan is graded 5.9 (American) C2 (aid) with aid, but an extremely difficult 5.14a (American) without any aid; guidebooks will often write such situations as 5.9 & C2 (5.14a), putting the no-aid/fully free option in brackets. (Full article...)

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General images

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

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

Alpine skiing has been contested at every Winter Olympics since 1936, when a combined event was held in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany.

From 1948 to 1980, the Winter Olympics also served as the World Championships in Olympic years, with separate competitions held in even-numbered non-Olympic years. During this period, the Olympic medalists received an additional medal of the same metal from the International Ski Federation (FIS). (Full article...)

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