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). (Full article...)

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In glaciology, a roche moutonnée (or sheepback) is a rock formation created by the passing of a glacier. The passage of glacial ice over underlying bedrock often results in asymmetric erosional forms as a result of abrasion on the "stoss" (upstream) side of the rock and plucking on the "lee" (downstream) side. Some geologists limit the term to features on scales of a metre to several hundred metres and refer to larger features as crag and tail. (Full article...)

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Part of the Cordillera Negra with the Cordillera Blanca in the background as seen from Qarwaqucha

The Cordillera Negra (Spanish for "black range"), Yana Walla in qechua is part of the Cordillera Occidental, one of three mountain ranges in the Andes of west central Peru. It is almost entirely located within the Ancash Region.

The range extends over an area about 230 km long and 25–40 km wide, stretching in a NNW-SSE direction parallel to the Pacific coast, its ridge is about 60 km from the coastline. It is part of the Andes mountain range which inland borders on the Costa, the narrow strip of coastal deserts along the South American coast. In the north and east the range is bordered by the Santa River which crosses the coastal ridge at 8° 45' S and runs parallel to the Cordillera Negra for almost all its length. In the south the range is bordered by the Patiwillka River at 10° 30'. In the central part of the range near Huaráz, Casma River breaks through the ridge of the range. (Full article...)

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A peak's line parent is the closest higher peak on the highest ridge leading away from the peak's "key col". A col is the lowest point on the ridge between two summits and is roughly synonymous with pass, gap, saddle and notch. The highest col of a peak is its key col. If there is more than one ridge which can be followed to a higher peak then the line parent is the peak closest to the key col. Usually, a line parent must meet some prominence criteria, which might vary depending on the author and the location of the peak.

There are at least two other kinds of peak parentage. Island parentage, which is also referred to as encirclement or topographic parentage; and source parentage. (Full article...)

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