Portal:Mountains

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Appalachian Mountains

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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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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Operational Navigation Chart of NE Greenland.

The Princess Caroline-Mathilde Alps (Danish: Prinsesse Caroline Mathilde Alper) are a mountain range system in the Holm Land Peninsula, King Frederick VIII Land, northeastern Greenland. Administratively this range is part of the Northeast Greenland National Park zone.

The range was named by the 1938–39 Mørkefjord Expedition after Princess Caroline-Mathilde of Denmark (1912-1995), wife of Prince Knud of Denmark (1900-1976), patron of the expedition. (Full article...)

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The north face of Mount Garibaldi rises above The Table and Garibaldi Lake in the Garibaldi Lake volcanic field

A volcanic field or crater row is an area of Earth's crust that is prone to localized volcanic activity. The type and number of volcanoes required to be called a "field" is not well-defined. Volcanic fields usually consist of clusters of up to 100 volcanoes such as cinder cones. Lava flows may also occur. They may occur as a monogenetic volcanic field or a polygenetic volcanic field. (Full article...)

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Selected climbing article

Fred Beckey, circa 1990

Friedrich Wolfgang Beckey (14 January 1923 – 30 October 2017), known as Fred Beckey, was an American rock climber, mountaineer and book author, who in seven decades of climbing achieved hundreds of first ascents of some of the tallest peaks and most important routes throughout Alaska, the Canadian Rockies and the Pacific Northwest. Among the Fifty Classic Climbs of North America, seven were established by Beckey, often climbing with some of the best known climbers of each generation. (Full article...)

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General images

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

Image 1Distribution of mountains by location and elevation (from Mountain)
Image 2Mountaineers, c. 1900 (from Mountaineering)
Image 3Alpine flora near Cascade Pass (from Montane ecosystems)
Image 4Car of Horská služba (Czech Republic) (from Mountain rescue)
Image 5The Catskills in Upstate New York represent an eroded plateau. (from Mountain)
Image 6The 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 7Edmund Hillary (left) and Tenzing Norgay after successfully completing the first ascent of Mount Everest, 29 May 1953
Image 8An alpine mire in the Swiss Alps (from Mountain)
Image 9A subalpine lake in the Cascade Range, Washington, United States (from Montane ecosystems)
Image 10The city of La Paz reaches up to 4,000 metres (13,000 ft) in elevation. (from Mountain)
Image 11Alpine landscape below Malyovitsa Peak, Rila Mountain, Bulgaria (from Montane ecosystems)
Image 12Iranian oak scrub in the Zagros Mountains (from Montane ecosystems)
Image 13Chimborazo, Ecuador, whose summit is the point farthest away from the Earth's center (from Mountain)
Image 14A stand of mountain birch at around 750 m in Trollheimen, typical of Scandinavian subalpine forests (from Montane ecosystems)
Image 15Climber approaching the summit of Manaslu at 8,163 metres (from Mountaineering)
Image 16Waimea Canyon, Hawaii, is known for its montane vegetation. (from Montane ecosystems)
Image 17Edelweiss, a plant associated with mountain sports (from Mountaineering)
Image 18Fixed lines and ladders are distinguishing characteristics of expedition style mountaineering (from Mountaineering)
Image 19British 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 20Stretcher box in Cumbria, England, prepositioned equipment saves mountain rescue teams having to trudge up mountains with it. (from Mountain rescue)
Image 21Illustration of mountains that developed on a fold that has been thrust (from Mountain)
Image 22Mount Everest, Earth's highest mountain (from Mountain)
Image 23Pirin Mountain, Bulgaria, part of the fault-block Rila-Rhodope massif (from Mountain)
Image 24The northern Urals at high latitude and elevation have an alpine climate and barren ground. (from Mountain)
Image 25Climbers ascending Mount Rainier looking at Little Tahoma Peak (from Mountaineering)
Image 26Winter campers bivouaced in the snow (from Mountaineering)
Image 27Mountaineers proceed across snow fields on South Tyrol; other climbers are visible further up the slopes. (from Mountaineering)
Image 28The Namcha Barwa Himal, east part of the Himalayas as seen from space by Apollo 9 (from Mountain range)
Image 29Edward Whymper (1840–1911), painting by Lance Calkin (from Mountaineering)
Image 30Montes Apenninus on the Moon was formed by an impact event. (from Mountain range)
Image 31Antique climbing tools (from Mountaineering)
Image 32Everest 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 33Tropical montane forest at around 2,000 m in Malaysia (from Montane ecosystems)
Image 34Temperate montane forest in Bavaria, Germany (from Montane ecosystems)
Image 35The Dolomite Mountains, Italy, in summer. The climate of the Dolomites is characterized by short but warm and mild summers, while winters are long and very cold. (from Mountain)
Image 36Mont Blanc in Aosta Valley, Italy, the highest point in the European Union (from Mountain)
Image 37Fuji volcano (from Mountain)
Image 38Cabane du Trient, a mountain hut in the Swiss Alps (from Mountaineering)
Image 39This 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 40Choppering out the injured – with Mt. Forbes in the background (from Mountain rescue)
Image 41The Ocean Ridge, the world's longest mountain range (chain) (from Mountain range)
Image 42Mountaineers climbing in South Tyrol (from Mountain)

Selected skiing article

Ski ballet is a form of ballet performed on skis. It is very similar to figure skating, combining spins, jumps, and flips in a two-minute routine choreographed to music. It was part of the professional freestyle skiing tours of the 1970s and 1980s and then an official FIS and Olympic discipline until the year 2000. Ski ballet became known as Acroski in the 1990s in an effort to legitimize its place among the competitive ski community, especially to the FIS. It is no longer a part of competitive freestyle skiing. (Full article...)

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