Foothills

Rocky Mountain foothills near Denver, CO.

San Bernardino Mountains foothills in San Bernardino, CA.

Foothills are geographically defined as gradual increases in elevation at the base of a mountain range. In terms of elevation it is opposite to a peak (summit). They are a transition zone between plains and low relief hills to the adjacent topographically high mountains. They constitute one of the four kinds of hills, the others being sand dunes, maturely dissected plains and low plateaus.

Description

Foothills border mountains, especially those which are reached through low ridges that increase in size closer and closer to the mountain.

Examples

Areas where foothills exist, or areas commonly referred to as the foothills, include:

• The Foothills of California in San Gabriel Valley in Los Angeles County, California
• The Colorado Front Range along the Rocky Mountains in Colorado
• The Wasatch Front along the Wasatch Mountains in Utah
• The Rocky Mountain Foothills in British Columbia and Alberta, Canada
• The Alpine foothills around the European Alps
• The Silesian Foothills in Silesia
• The Siwalik Hills along the Himalayas in the Indian subcontinent
• The Catalina Foothills in Tucson, Arizona
• The foothills in Western North Carolina and Northwestern South Carolina
• The Margalla hills near the Himalayas in Pakistan
• The Duars, Chos and Terai on the foothills of Himalayas (India)
• The foothills around Boise in Idaho

Synonyms

Another word for a foothill region is "piedmont". The Italian Piedmont region lies in the foothills of the Alps, and several other foothills in other parts of the world go by similar names.

See also

• Ice piedmont
• Piedmont (disambiguation)