Portal:Mountains

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Uluguru Mountains, in Tanzania

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). (Full article...)

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A hill is a landform that extends above the surrounding terrain. It often has a distinct summit, and is usually applied to peaks which are above elevation compared to the relative landmass, though not as prominent as mountains. (Full article...)

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Castle Mountain (May 2010)

The Beaverfoot Range is a mountain range of the Canadian Rockies, located in southeastern British Columbia. The range extends from Cedared Creek near Spillimacheen north to the Kicking Horse River.

This range includes the following mountains and peaks:


Name	Elevation (m/ft)
Kapristo Mountain	2,722	8,930
Castle Mountain	2,545	8,350
Coral Mountain	2,460	8,070
Tower Peak	2,460	8,070

(Full article...)

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Fault blocks are very large blocks of rock, sometimes hundreds of kilometres in extent, created by tectonic and localized stresses in Earth's crust. Large areas of bedrock are broken up into blocks by faults. Blocks are characterized by relatively uniform lithology. The largest of these fault blocks are called crustal blocks. Large crustal blocks broken off from tectonic plates are called terranes. Those terranes which are the full thickness of the lithosphere are called microplates. Continent-sized blocks are called variously microcontinents, continental ribbons, H-blocks, extensional allochthons and outer highs.

Because most stresses relate to the tectonic activity of moving plates, most motion between blocks is horizontal, that is parallel to the Earth's crust by strike-slip faults. However vertical movement of blocks produces much more dramatic results. Landforms (mountains, hills, ridges, lakes, valleys, etc.) are sometimes formed when the faults have a large vertical displacement. Adjacent raised blocks (horsts) and down-dropped blocks (grabens) can form high escarpments. Often the movement of these blocks is accompanied by tilting, due to compaction or stretching of the crust at that point. (Full article...)

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Selected climbing article

Climbing is a major US-based rock climbing magazine first published in 1970. In 2007, it was bought by Skram Media, the publisher of Urban Climber Magazine. The headquarters of the magazine is in Boulder, Colorado. It is published nine times a year. Climbing was purchased by Outside in 2021. (Full article...)

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General images

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

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

Selected skiing article

An ice block, photographed at the Duluth Canal Park in Minnesota

Ice is water that is frozen into a solid state, typically forming at or below temperatures of 0 °C, 32 °F, or 273.15 K. It occurs naturally on Earth, on other planets, in Oort cloud objects, and as interstellar ice. As a naturally occurring crystalline inorganic solid with an ordered structure, ice is considered to be a mineral. Depending on the presence of impurities such as particles of soil or bubbles of air, it can appear transparent or a more or less opaque bluish-white color.

Virtually all of the ice on Earth is of a hexagonal crystalline structure denoted as ice I_h (spoken as "ice one h"). Depending on temperature and pressure, at least nineteen phases (packing geometries) can exist. The most common phase transition to ice I_h occurs when liquid water is cooled below 0 °C (273.15 K, 32 °F) at standard atmospheric pressure. When water is cooled rapidly (quenching), up to three types of amorphous ice can form. Interstellar ice is overwhelmingly low-density amorphous ice (LDA), which likely makes LDA ice the most abundant type in the universe. When cooled slowly, correlated proton tunneling occurs below −253.15 °C (20 K, −423.67 °F) giving rise to macroscopic quantum phenomena. (Full article...)