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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Selected mountain-related landform

The region between the current leading edge of the glacier and the moraines of latest maximum is called glacier foreland or glacier forefield. In the Alps this maximum was in 1850 and since then the region has become ice free due to deglaciation. Because of this relative recent development of vegetation and morphodynamic the glacier foreland differs considerably from the surrounding landscape. (Full article...)

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Wreckage of a US Navy P-2V Neptune that crashed in the Kronborg Glacier with one of the peaks of the Lilloise Range rising in the distance.

The Lilloise Range or Lilloise Mountains (Danish: Lilloise Bjerge) is a mountain range in King Christian IX Land, eastern Greenland. Administratively this range is part of the Sermersooq Municipality.

In petrology the Lilloise Intrusion is named after this range. (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

3rd Tier crag on Clark Mountain. Jumbo Love is on the lighter-coloured overhanging walls, centre-right.

Jumbo Love is a very long 76-metre (249 ft) sport climbing route, on remote limestone cliffs on Clark Mountain in the Mojave Desert. Bolted by American climber Randy Leavitt in the 1990s, he invited Chris Sharma to attempt it in 2007. When Sharma completed the first free ascent on September 11, 2008, the route became the first-ever rock climb in history to have a confirmed grade of 9b (5.15b), and it remains an important route in the history of rock climbing.

The route has been repeated, and its grade confirmed, by a number of subsequent climbers, including French climber Seb Bouin, who made the fourth ascent on October 25, 2022. Bouin followed up his ascent by adding a direct start to the route on November 1, 2022, to create a route called Suprême Jumbo Love, which at 9b+ (5.15c) became North America's hardest climbing route and only the sixth 9b+ sport climbing route in history. (Full article...)

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General images

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

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

Selected skiing article

An athlete mogul skiing at Waterville Valley Resort

Mogul skiing is a freestyle skiing competition consisting of one timed run of free skiing on a steep, heavily moguled course, stressing technical turns, aerial maneuvers and speed. Internationally, the sport is contested at the FIS Freestyle World Ski Championships, and at the Winter Olympic Games.

Moguls are a series of bumps on a piste formed when skiers push snow into mounds as they do sharp turns. This tends to happen naturally as skiers use the slope but they can also be constructed artificially. Once formed, a naturally occurring mogul tends to grow as skiers follow similar paths around it, further deepening the surrounding grooves known as troughs. Since skiing tends to be a series of linked turns, moguls form together to create a bump field. (Full article...)

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