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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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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One of the massive ranges at the southern end of the Stauning Alps viewed from the Nordvestfjord

The Stauning Alps (Danish: Stauning Alper) are a large system of mountain ranges in Scoresby Land, King Christian X Land, northeastern Greenland. Administratively the Stauning Alps are part of the Northeast Greenland National Park zone.

This mountainous area was named after Danish politician Thorvald Stauning (1873–1942) who had helped to finance expeditions to east Greenland planned and carried out by Danish explorers. (Full article...)

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A tuya is a flat-topped, steep-sided volcano formed when lava erupts through a thick glacier or ice sheet. They are rare worldwide, being confined to regions which were covered by glaciers and had active volcanism during the same period.

As lava that erupts under a glacier cools very quickly and cannot travel far, it piles up into a steep-sided hill. If the eruption continues long enough, it either melts all the ice or emerges through the top of the ice and then creates normal-looking lava flows that make a flat cap on top of the hill. Discovering and dating the lava flows in a tuya has proven useful in reconstructing past glacial ice extents and thicknesses. (Full article...)

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Selected climbing article

Leonardo Emilio Comici (21 February 1901 – 19 October 1940) was an Italian mountain climber and caver. He made numerous ascents in the Eastern Alps, particularly in the Dolomites (where he made over 200 first ascents during his career) and in the Julian Alps. Comici was nicknamed the "Angel of the Dolomites".

In the 1930s and 1940s Comici and other climbers (including Riccardo Cassin, Raffaele Carlesso and Alvise Andrich) represented the Italian answer to the achievements of German climbers. Comici perfected the Bavarian technique of mountain climbing, and began the era of "sixth grade" climbing (at that time the highest climbing grade considered humanly surmountable). He was the inventor and proponent of using multi-step aid ladders, solid belays, the use of a trail/tag line, and hanging bivouacs, contributing greatly to the techniques of big wall climbing. (Full article...)

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General images

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

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