Portal:Mountains

Portal

WikiProject

Discussion

Introduction

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...)

Show new selections below (purge)

Selected mountain-related landform

Transverse crevasses, Chugach State Park, Alaska

A crevasse is a deep crack that forms in a glacier or ice sheet. Crevasses form as a result of the movement and resulting stress associated with the shear stress generated when two semi-rigid pieces above a plastic substrate have different rates of movement. The resulting intensity of the shear stress causes a breakage along the faces. (Full article...)

More mountain landforms

Selected mountain range

Forest in Genhe, Inner Mongolia

The Greater Khingan Range or Da Hinggan Range (simplified Chinese: 大兴安岭; traditional Chinese: 大興安嶺; pinyin: Dà Xīng'ān Lǐng; IPA: [tâ ɕíŋ.án.lìŋ]) is a 1,200-kilometer-long (750 mi) volcanic mountain range in the Inner Mongolia region of Northeast China. It was originally called the Xianbei Mountains, which later became the name of the northern branch of the Donghu, the Xianbei. (Full article...)

More mountain ranges

Selected mountain type

A nunatak (from Inuit nunataq) is the summit or ridge of a mountain that protrudes from an ice field or glacier that otherwise covers most of the mountain or ridge. They often form natural pyramidal peaks. Isolated nunataks are also called glacial islands, and smaller nunataks rounded by glacial action may be referred to as rognons.

The word is of Greenlandic origin and has been used in English since the 1870s. (Full article...)

More mountain types

Selected climbing article

Abseiling (/ˈæbseɪl/ AB-sayl or /ˈɑːpzaɪl/ AHP-zyle; from German abseilen 'to rope down'), also known as rappelling (/ˈræpɛl/ RAP-pell or /rəˈpɛl/ rə-PELL; from French rappeler 'to recall, to pull through'), is the controlled descent of a steep slope, such as a rock face, by moving down a rope. When abseiling, the person descending controls their own movement down a static or fixed rope, in contrast to lowering off, in which the rope attached to the person descending is paid out by their belayer. (Full article...)

More climbing articles

edit

Related portals

General images

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

Image 1Pirin Mountain, Bulgaria, part of the fault-block Rila-Rhodope massif (from Mountain)
Image 2An alpine mire in the Swiss Alps (from Mountain)
Image 3The Catskills in Upstate New York represent an eroded plateau. (from Mountain)
Image 4The city of La Paz reaches up to 4,000 metres (13,000 ft) in elevation. (from Mountain)
Image 5Choppering out the injured – with Mt. Forbes in the background (from Mountain rescue)
Image 6Iranian oak scrub in the Zagros Mountains (from Montane ecosystems)
Image 7Temperate montane forest in Bavaria, Germany (from Montane ecosystems)
Image 8Climber approaching the summit of Manaslu at 8,163 metres (from Mountaineering)
Image 9Mont Blanc in Aosta Valley, Italy, the highest point in the European Union (from Mountain)
Image 10Fuji volcano (from Mountain)
Image 11The Namcha Barwa Himal, east part of the Himalayas as seen from space by Apollo 9 (from Mountain range)
Image 12Alpine flora near Cascade Pass (from Montane ecosystems)
Image 13A stand of mountain birch at around 750 m in Trollheimen, typical of Scandinavian subalpine forests (from Montane ecosystems)
Image 14British 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 15Antique climbing tools (from Mountaineering)
Image 16Mountaineers climbing in South Tyrol (from Mountain)
Image 17Everest 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 18Mountaineers proceed across snow fields on South Tyrol; other climbers are visible further up the slopes. (from Mountaineering)
Image 19The Dolomite Mountains, Italy, in summer. The climate of the Dolomites is characterized by short but warm and mild summers, while winters are long and very cold. (from Mountain)
Image 20Fixed lines and ladders are distinguishing characteristics of expedition style mountaineering (from Mountaineering)
Image 21Mount Everest, Earth's highest mountain (from Mountain)
Image 22Edmund Hillary (left) and Tenzing Norgay after successfully completing the first ascent of Mount Everest, 29 May 1953
Image 23Alpine landscape below Malyovitsa Peak, Rila Mountain, Bulgaria (from Montane ecosystems)
Image 24Illustration of mountains that developed on a fold that has been thrust (from Mountain)
Image 25Montes Apenninus on the Moon was formed by an impact event. (from Mountain range)
Image 26The 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 27Winter campers bivouaced in the snow (from Mountaineering)
Image 28The Ocean Ridge, the world's longest mountain range (chain) (from Mountain range)
Image 29Stretcher box in Cumbria, England, prepositioned equipment saves mountain rescue teams having to trudge up mountains with it. (from Mountain rescue)
Image 30Cabane du Trient, a mountain hut in the Swiss Alps (from Mountaineering)
Image 31A subalpine lake in the Cascade Range, Washington, United States (from Montane ecosystems)
Image 32Tropical montane forest at around 2,000 m in Malaysia (from Montane ecosystems)
Image 33Edelweiss, a plant associated with mountain sports (from Mountaineering)
Image 34Distribution of mountains by location and elevation (from Mountain)
Image 35Chimborazo, Ecuador, whose summit is the point farthest away from the Earth's center (from Mountain)
Image 36Mountaineers, c. 1900 (from Mountaineering)
Image 37Climbers ascending Mount Rainier looking at Little Tahoma Peak (from Mountaineering)
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 39Waimea Canyon, Hawaii, is known for its montane vegetation. (from Montane ecosystems)
Image 40The northern Urals at high latitude and elevation have an alpine climate and barren ground. (from Mountain)
Image 41Edward Whymper (1840–1911), painting by Lance Calkin (from Mountaineering)
Image 42Car of Horská služba (Czech Republic) (from Mountain rescue)

Selected skiing article

A carved turn is a skiing and snowboarding term for the technique of turning by shifting the ski or snowboard onto its edges. When edged, the sidecut geometry causes the ski (in the following, snowboard is implicit and not mentioned) to bend into an arc, and the ski naturally follows this arc shape to produce a turning motion. The carve is efficient in allowing the skier to maintain speed because, unlike the older stem Christie and parallel turns, the skis do not create drag by sliding sideways.

Starting a carved turn requires the ski to be rotated onto its edge, which can be accomplished through angulation of the hips and knees applied to both skis, leading them to efficiently carve a naturally parallel turn. Carving turns are generally smoother and longer radius than either stemmed or parallel turns. Carving maintains the skis efficiently turning along the direction of travel as opposed to skidding at an angle across the direction of travel. For a given velocity, carving with shaped skis typically requires less effort than stemming or parallel and offers increased speed and control in even steep descents and highly energetic turns, making it ubiquitous in racing. (Full article...)

More skiing articles

Subcategories