Portal:Mountains

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Introduction

Mount Ararat, as seen from Armenia.

A mountain is a large landform that rises above the surrounding land in a limited area, usually in the form of a peak. A mountain is generally steeper than a hill. Mountains are formed through tectonic forces or volcanism. These forces can locally raise the surface of the earth. Mountains erode slowly through the action of rivers, weather conditions, and glaciers. A few mountains are isolated summits, but most occur in huge mountain ranges.

High elevations on mountains produce colder climates than at sea level. 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 and recreation, such as mountain climbing.

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).

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Selected mountain-related landform

New York's Finger Lakes. Lying south of Lake Ontario, the Finger Lakes formed in tunnel valleys.

A tunnel valley is a large, long, U-shaped valley originally cut under the glacial ice near the margin of continental ice sheets such as that now covering Antarctica and formerly covering portions of all continents during past glacial ages.

A tunnel valley can be as long as 100 km (62 mi), 4 km (2.5 mi) wide, and 400 m (1,300 ft) deep (its depth may vary along its length). Read more...

Selected mountain range

The Udzungwa Mountains are a mountain range southeast of Dodoma in Tanzania and are part of the Eastern Arc Mountains. They are clad mostly in rainforest and house a biodiverse community of flora and fauna with large numbers of endemic species. Read more...

Selected mountain type

Grave Creek Mound, in Moundsville, West Virginia

A mound is a heaped pile of earth, gravel, sand, rocks, or debris. Most commonly, mounds are earthen formations such as hills and mountains, particularly if they appear artificial. A mound may be any rounded area of topographically higher elevation on any surface. Artificial mounds have been created for a variety of reasons throughout history, including ceremonial (platform mound), burial (tumulus), and commemorative purposes (e.g. Kościuszko Mound). Read more...

Selected glacier-related article

Glacial outwash sediment, Knud Rasmussen Glacier, Greenland.

An outwash fan is a fan-shaped body of sediments deposited by braided streams from a melting glacier. Sediment locked within the ice of the glacier, gets transported by the streams of meltwater, and deposits on the outwash plain, at the terminus of the glacier. The outwash, the sediment transported and deposited by the meltwater and that makes up the fan, is usually poorly sorted due to the short distance traveled before being deposited. Read more...

Selected climbing article

Top roping in Adelaide, South Australia

Top rope climbing (or top roping) is a style in climbing in which the climber is securely attached to a rope which then passes up, through an anchor system at the top of the climb, and down to a belayer at the foot of the climb. The belayer takes in slack rope throughout the climb, so that if at any point the climber were to lose their hold, they would not fall more than a short distance.

Top-roping is often done on routes that cannot be lead climbed for one reason or another. Most top-rope anchors can be reached through non-technical means, such as by hiking or scrambling to the top of the cliff. Read more...

Selected images

Mount Everest, the highest peak on Earth
Mountain climbers ascending Mount Rainier
The Aletsch Glacier, the largest glacier of the Alps, in Switzerland
Montes Apenninus on the Moon was formed by an impact event.
Diagram of glacial plucking and abrasion
Mountaineers, circa 1900
Iranian oak scrub in the Zagros Mountains
Waimea Canyon, Hawaii is known for its montane vegetation.
Features of a glacial landscape
Enlargement of area in rectangle of the previous image. On Earth the ridge would be called the terminal moraine of an alpine glacier. Picture taken with HiRISE under the HiWish program. Image from Ismenius Lacus quadrangle.
Crevasses on Mount Baker
Perito Moreno glacier
Ice climbing
Ice cracks in the Titlis Glacier
Snow cave on Mount Hood
A drumlin field forms after a glacier has modified the landscape. The teardrop-shaped formations denote the direction of the ice flow.
Cotopaxi (5,897 m), Andes: 5,000 m
The Grotta del Gelo is a cave of Etna volcano, the southernmost glacier in Europe
Hudson Stuck (1863-1920), circa 1914
The Ocean Ridge, the world's longest mountain range (chain)
Car of Horská služba (Czech Republic)
The Himalayas, the highest mountain range on Earth, seen from space
A mountain rescue team in Iran moving a casualty.
Mount Ararat, as seen from Armenia.
An 1865 lithograph showing the High Tatras mountain range in Slovakia and Poland by Karel Kořistka appearing in a book by August Heinrich Petermann.
Ludwig Purtscheller (1849-1900)
Mountaineering in the Caucasus, photo from 1989 by Estonian mountaineer Jaan Künnap
Lenticular Cloud before Bad Weather
The Quelccaya Ice Cap is the second largest glaciated area in the tropics, in Peru
Sightseeing boat in front of a tidewater glacier, Kenai Fjords National Park, Alaska
Night camp at Mount Whitney
Kitty Ann Mountain is an eroded mountain in the Ramapo mountain range in New Jersey and New York
Mountain rescue team members and other services attend to a casualty in Freiburg Germany.
A climber taking the final few steps onto the 6,160 m (20,210 ft) summit of Imja Tse (Island Peak) in Nepal, 2004
Mesa in Ismenius Lacus quadrangle, as seen by CTX. Mesa has several glaciers eroding it. One of the glaciers is seen in greater detail in the next two images from HiRISE. Image from Ismenius Lacus quadrangle.
This 1848 "Scetch 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.
Glacier as seen by HiRISE under the HiWish program. Area in rectangle is enlarged in the next photo. Zone of accumulation of snow at the top. Glacier is moving down valley, then spreading out on plain. Evidence for flow comes from the many lines on surface. Location is in Protonilus Mensae in Ismenius Lacus quadrangle.
Henriette d'Angeville (1794-1871)
A stand of mountain birch at around 750 m in Trollheimen, typical of Scandinavian subalpine forests
Climbing a steep rocky cliff
Ice calving from the terminus of the Perito Moreno Glacier in western Patagonia, Argentina
Aerial view of a glacier in Chugach State Park, Alaska, United States.
The Andes, the world's longest mountain range on the surface of a continent, seen from the air
Weisshorn (4,506 m), Alps: 3,000 m
1871 climbing expedition, including members of the Walker family, Melchior Anderegg and Adolphus Warburton Moore
Picture of a mountaineer by Josef Feid Anastasius Grün
Black ice glacier near Aconcagua, Argentina
Sněžka - one of the first European mountains visited by tourists
Illustration of mountains that developed on a fold that thrusted.
Eastern face of Kangchenjunga, the third highest mountain in the world, near the Zemu Glacier, in the Himalayan region of Sikkim, India.
Landscape produced by a receding glacier
A glacier cave located on the Perito Moreno Glacier in Argentina
Oscar Eckenstein
Part of the Haute Route between France and Switzerland; two alpinists can be seen following the trail in the snow
Glacial moraines above Lake Louise, Alberta, Canada
A combination of high latitude and high altitude makes the northern Urals in picture to have climatic conditions that make the ground barren.
A subalpine lake in the Goms district of the Swiss Alps
Geological cross-section of Fuji volcano
Stretcher box in Cumbria, England, prepositioned equipment saves mountain rescue teams having to trudge up mountains with it.
Shear or herring-bone crevasses on Emmons Glacier (Mount Rainier); such crevasses often form near the edge of a glacier where interactions with underlying or marginal rock impede flow. In this case, the impediment appears to be some distance from the near margin of the glacier.
Chimborazo, Ecuador. The point on Earth's surface farthest from its center.
Peaks of Mount Kenya
The Catskills in Upstate New York represent an eroded plateau.
The Baltoro Glacier in northern Pakistan. At 62 kilometres (39 mi) in length, it is one of the longest alpine glaciers on earth.
Cho Oyu (8,201 m), Himalayas: 6,000 m
Alpine flora near Cascade Pass
Northern polar ice cap on Mars
Fanny Bullock Workman (1859-1925)
An open crevasse at the Mont Blanc in 1862
Pine forest in Abkhazia
Glacially plucked granitic bedrock near Mariehamn, Åland Islands
Climbers descending the ridge of Aiguille du Midi (France)
Mountaineers descending mixed rock, snow and ice slope in winter High Tatras, Slovakia
Triple avalanches on Mt. Index
The silver-rich Cerro Rico in Potosí, Bolivia, was in colonial times an immerse source of wealth for the Spanish administration.
Climbing over a crevasse bridge
An alpine mire in the Swiss Alps
Matthias Zurbriggen (1856-1917)
Edward Whymper (1840-1911), painting by Lance Calkin
Isostatic pressure by a glacier on the Earth's crust
Gorner Glacier in Switzerland
John C. Fremont (1813-1890)
Mouth of the Schlatenkees Glacier near Innergschlöß, Austria
Hillary and Tenzing Montes on Pluto (14 July 2015)
Jacques Balmat (1762-1834) (left) at the side of Horace-Benedict de Saussure (1740-1799), "The Father of Alpinism", in a monument erected in Chamonix
A packrafter passes a wall of freshly exposed blue ice on Spencer Glacier, in Alaska. Glacial ice acts like a filter on light, and the more time light can spend traveling through ice, the bluer it becomes.
Mount Wilhelm in Papua New Guinea
Sunbeams in the valley of the North Fork of the Cascade River, Washington, USA
Tropical montane forest at around 2,000 m in Malaysia
Crossing a crevasse on the Easton Glacier, Mount Baker, in the North Cascades, United States

Selected skiing article

Biathletes in the shooting area of a competition

The biathlon is a winter sport that combines cross-country skiing and rifle shooting. It is treated as a race where the contestant with the shortest total time wins. Depending on the competition, missed shots result in extra distance or time being added to the contestant's total. Read more...