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). 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...)

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Selected mountain-related landform

Two cirques with semi-permanent snowpatches near Abisko National Park, Sweden

A cirque (French: [siʁk]; from the Latin word circus) is an amphitheatre-like valley formed by glacial erosion. Alternative names for this landform are corrie (from Scottish Gaelic: coire, meaning a pot or cauldron) and cwm (Welsh for 'valley'; pronounced [kʊm]). A cirque may also be a similarly shaped landform arising from fluvial erosion.

The concave shape of a glacial cirque is open on the downhill side, while the cupped section is generally steep. Cliff-like slopes, down which ice and glaciated debris combine and converge, form the three or more higher sides. The floor of the cirque ends up bowl-shaped, as it is the complex convergence zone of combining ice flows from multiple directions and their accompanying rock burdens. Hence, it experiences somewhat greater erosion forces and is most often overdeepened below the level of the cirque's low-side outlet (stage) and its down-slope (backstage) valley. If the cirque is subject to seasonal melting, the floor of the cirque most often forms a tarn (small lake) behind a dam, which marks the downstream limit of the glacial overdeepening. The dam itself can be composed of moraine, glacial till, or a lip of the underlying bedrock. (Full article...)

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Mount Kilimanjaro (/ˌkɪlɪmənˈdʒɑːroʊ/) is a dormant volcano in Tanzania. With three volcanic cones — Kibo, Mawenzi and Shira — it is the highest mountain in Africa and the highest single free-standing mountain above sea level in the world: 5,895 m (19,341 ft) above sea level and 4,900 m (16,100 ft) above its plateau base. It is also the highest volcano in the Eastern Hemisphere.

Kilimanjaro is the fourth most topographically prominent peak on Earth. It is part of Kilimanjaro National Park and is a major hiking and climbing destination. Because of its shrinking glaciers and ice fields, which are projected to disappear between 2025 and 2035, it has been the subject of many scientific studies. (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

Jonathan Siegrist on the first free ascent (FFA) of Spectrum 5.14c (8c+), Red Rocks, Nevada.

In mountaineering and climbing, a first ascent (abbreviated to FA in guide books), is the first successful documented climb to the top of a mountain or the top of a particular climbing route. Early 20th-century mountaineers and climbers focused on reaching the tops of iconic mountains (e.g. the eight-thousanders) and climbing routes (e.g. the great north faces of the Alps) by whatever means possible, often using considerable amounts of aid climbing, and/or with large expedition style support teams that laid "siege" to the climb.

As all the key tops were summited, the manner in which each top was reached became important, particularly the ability to complete the ascent without artificial aid, which is called free climbing. In free climbing, the term first free ascent (abbreviated FFA) is used where a mountain or climbing route is ascended without any artificial aid (devices for protection in the event of a fall could be used as long as they did not aid progression). Completing the FFA of a climbing route is often called freeing (or more latterly sending) a route. (Full article...)

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General images

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

Image 1The Ocean Ridge, the world's longest mountain range (chain) (from Mountain range)
Image 2Tropical montane forest at around 2,000 m in Malaysia (from Montane ecosystems)
Image 3Chimborazo, Ecuador, whose summit is the point farthest away from the Earth's center (from Mountain)
Image 4Mountaineers proceed across snow fields on South Tyrol; other climbers are visible further up the slopes. (from Mountaineering)
Image 5Car of Horská služba (Czech Republic) (from Mountain rescue)
Image 6Antique climbing tools (from Mountaineering)
Image 7Winter campers bivouaced in the snow (from Mountaineering)
Image 8Waimea Canyon, Hawaii, is known for its montane vegetation. (from Montane ecosystems)
Image 9Mountain rescue team members and other services attend to a casualty in Freiburg Germany. (from Mountain rescue)
Image 10The northern Urals at high latitude and elevation have an alpine climate and barren ground. (from Mountain)
Image 11A stand of mountain birch at around 750 m in Trollheimen, typical of Scandinavian subalpine forests (from Montane ecosystems)
Image 12Temperate montane forest in Bavaria, Germany (from Montane ecosystems)
Image 13Climber approaching the summit of Manaslu at 8,163 metres (from Mountaineering)
Image 14The city of La Paz reaches up to 4,000 metres (13,000 ft) in elevation. (from Mountain)
Image 15Edward Whymper (1840–1911), painting by Lance Calkin (from Mountaineering)
Image 16Mountaineers, c. 1900 (from Mountaineering)
Image 17The Namcha Barwa Himal, east part of the Himalayas as seen from space by Apollo 9 (from Mountain range)
Image 18A mountain rescue team in Iran moving a casualty. (from Mountain rescue)
Image 19Climbers ascending Mount Rainier looking at Little Tahoma Peak (from Mountaineering)
Image 20The Catskills in Upstate New York represent an eroded plateau. (from Mountain)
Image 21This 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 22Edelweiss, a plant associated with mountain sports (from Mountaineering)
Image 23An alpine mire in the Swiss Alps (from Mountain)
Image 24Cabane du Trient, a mountain hut in the Swiss Alps (from Mountaineering)
Image 25Fuji volcano (from Mountain)
Image 26Mount Everest, Earth's highest mountain (from Mountain)
Image 27Everest 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 28Choppering out the injured – with Mt. Forbes in the background (from Mountain rescue)
Image 29Stretcher box in Cumbria, England, prepositioned equipment saves mountain rescue teams having to trudge up mountains with it. (from Mountain rescue)
Image 30Mountaineers climbing in South Tyrol (from Mountain)
Image 31Alpine flora near Cascade Pass (from Montane ecosystems)
Image 32Montes Apenninus on the Moon was formed by an impact event. (from Mountain range)
Image 33Illustration of mountains that developed on a fold that has been thrust (from Mountain)
Image 34A subalpine lake in the Cascade Range, Washington, United States (from Montane ecosystems)
Image 35The 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 36Fixed lines and ladders are distinguishing characteristics of expedition style mountaineering (from Mountaineering)
Image 37Alpine landscape below Malyovitsa Peak, Rila Mountain, Bulgaria (from Montane ecosystems)
Image 38Pirin Mountain, Bulgaria, part of the fault-block Rila-Rhodope massif (from Mountain)
Image 39Mont Blanc in Aosta Valley, Italy, the highest point in the European Union (from Mountain)
Image 40British 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 41Iranian oak scrub in the Zagros Mountains (from Montane ecosystems)

Selected skiing article

Sand skiing (occasionally sand-skiing) is a sport and form of skiing in which the skier rides down a sand dune or strides across a beach on skis. It is practised in many sandy areas, including Sossusvlei, Namibia and Peru, along with other boardsports such as sandboarding. Sand skiing equipment includes a pair of skis with a laminate base and wax that needs to be applied to reduce friction from the sand. An International Sandboarding and Sandski Association (InterSands) was founded in 2014 at St. Gallen, Switzerland.

Henrik May, a German living in Namibia for some 10 years, set a Guinness World Record in speed sand-skiing on 6 June 2010. He reached a speed of 92.12 km/h. (Full article...)

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