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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The Langkofel Group in the Dolomites of the Italian Alps, with the clearly visible Langkofel Col (*Langkofelscharte*) left of centre

A col in geomorphology is the lowest point on a mountain ridge between two peaks. It may also be called a gap or pass. Particularly rugged and forbidding cols in the terrain are usually referred to as notches. They are generally unsuitable as mountain passes, but are occasionally crossed by mule tracks or climbers' routes. Derived from the French col ("collar, neck") from Latin collum, "neck", the term tends to be associated more with mountain than hill ranges. The distinction with other names for breaks in mountain ridges such as saddle, wind gap or notch is not sharply defined and may vary from place to place. Many double summits are separated by prominent cols.

The height of a summit above its highest col (called the key col) is effectively a measure of a mountain's topographic prominence. (Full article...)

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A building with terraces overlooks the side of one of the Haraz Mountains

Jabal Haraz (Arabic: جَبَل حَرَاز, romanized: Jabal Ḥarāz) is a mountainous region of Yemen, between Sanaa and Al-Hudaydah, which is considered to be within the Sarat range. In the 11th century, it was the stronghold of the Sulaihid dynasty, many of whose buildings still survive today. It includes Jabal An-Nabi Shu'ayb, the highest mountain in Yemen and the Arabian Peninsula. (Full article...)

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A nunatak (from Inuit nunataq) is the summit or ridge of a mountain that protrudes from an ice field or glacier that otherwise covers most of the mountain or ridge. They often form natural pyramidal peaks. Isolated nunataks are also called glacial islands, and smaller nunataks rounded by glacial action may be referred to as rognons.

The word is of Greenlandic origin and has been used in English since the 1870s. (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 is 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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General images

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

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

Selected skiing article

The stem christie or wedge christie, is a type of skiing turn that originated in the mid-1800s in Norway and lasted until the late 1960s. It comprises three steps: 1) forming a wedge by rotating the tail of one ski outwards at an angle to the direction of movement, initiating a change in direction opposite to the stemmed ski, 2) bringing the other ski parallel to the wedged ski, and 3) completing the turn with both skis parallel as they carve an arc, sliding sideways together. (Full article...)

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