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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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Satellite image of kettle lakes in Yamal Peninsula (Northern Siberia), adjacent to the Gulf of Ob (right). The lake colors indicate amounts of sediment or depth.

A kettle (also known as a kettle hole, kettlehole, or pothole) is a depression or hole in an outwash plain formed by retreating glaciers or draining floodwaters. The kettles are formed as a result of blocks of dead ice left behind by retreating glaciers, which become surrounded by sediment deposited by meltwater streams as there is increased friction. The ice becomes buried in the sediment and when the ice melts, a depression is left called a kettle hole, creating a dimpled appearance on the outwash plain. Lakes often fill these kettles; these are called kettle hole lakes. Another source is the sudden drainage of an ice-dammed lake and when the block melts, the hole it leaves behind is a kettle. As the ice melts, ramparts can form around the edge of the kettle hole. The lakes that fill these holes are seldom more than 10 m (33 ft) deep and eventually fill with sediment. In acidic conditions, a kettle bog may form but in alkaline conditions, it will be kettle peatland. (Full article...)

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Franconia Ridge viewed from Mount Lincoln, with the sharp peaks of Mount Flume (left) and Mount Liberty (right) visible behind the ridge.

The Franconia Range is a mountain range located in the White Mountains of the U.S. state of New Hampshire. It is the second-highest range of peaks (after the Presidential Range) in the White Mountains.

Franconia Ridge is a prominent ridge which forms the backbone of the range, stringing together all of its major summits. (Full article...)

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Trap rock, also known as either trapp or trap, is any dark-colored, fine-grained, non-granitic intrusive or extrusive igneous rock. Types of trap rock include basalt, peridotite, diabase, and gabbro. Trap is also used to refer to flood (plateau) basalts, such as the Deccan Traps and Siberian Traps. The erosion of trap rock created by the stacking of successive lava flows often creates a distinct stairstep landscape from which the term trap was derived from the Swedish word trappa, which means "stairway".

The slow cooling of magma either as a sill or as a thick lava flow sometimes creates systematic vertical fractures within the resulting layer of trap rock. These fractures often form rock columns that are typically hexagonal, but also four- to eight-sided. (Full article...)

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An ascender is a device (usually mechanical) used for directly ascending, or for facilitating protection, with a fixed rope when climbing on steep mountain terrain. A form introduced in the 1950's became so popular it began the term "Jumar" for the device, and the verb "to jumar" to describe its use in ascending.

Ascenders can also be used as a braking component within a rope-hauling system, often used in rescue situations. (Full article...)

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General images

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

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

Selected skiing article

Windburn is a condition whereby a sunburn obtained in cool or cloudy conditions is incorrectly attributed to the effects of the wind rather than the sun, mostly in North America. The main reason is that in cool or cloudy conditions many people are unaware that they are still vulnerable to the burning effects of the sun's UV radiation, so fail to take precautionary sun protection measures.

The fact that windburn was really misattributed sunburn, rather than a distinct condition, was shown as early as 1936 by English skin specialist Charles Howard White of Cambridge and American physicist William Henry Crew of New York University. Nonetheless, the accepted existence of windburn remains a widely held misconception. (Full article...)

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