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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Selected mountain-related landform

Side valleys and tributary valleys are valleys whose brooks or rivers flow into greater ones.

Upstream, the valleys can be classified in an increasing order which is equivalent to the usual orographic order: the tributaries are ordered from those nearest to the source of the river to those nearest to the mouth of the river. A confluence is where two or more tributaries or rivers flow together. (Full article...)

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Selected mountain range

Political map of the Guiana Shield

The Guiana Shield (French: Plateau des Guyanes, Bouclier guyanais; Dutch: Hoogland van Guyana, Guianaschild; Portuguese: Planalto das Guianas, Escudo das Guianas; Spanish: Escudo guayanés) is one of the three cratons of the South American Plate. It is a 1.7 billion-year-old Precambrian geological formation in northeast South America that forms a portion of the northern coast. The higher elevations on the shield are called the Guiana Highlands, which is where the table-like mountains called tepuis are found. The Guiana Highlands are also the source of some of the world's most well-known waterfalls such as Angel Falls, Kaieteur Falls and Cuquenan Falls.

The Guiana Shield underlies Guyana (previously British Guiana), Suriname (previously Dutch Guiana), and French Guiana (or Guyane), much of southern Venezuela, as well as parts of Colombia and Brazil. The rocks of the Guiana Shield consist of metasediments and metavolcanics (greenstones) overlain by sub-horizontal layers of sandstones, quartzites, shales and conglomerates intruded by sills of younger mafic intrusives such as gabbros. (Full article...)

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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...)

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Selected climbing article

Climbing technique refers to a broad range of physical movements used in the activity or sport of climbing.

Notable groups include:

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

Selected skiing article

The parallel turn in alpine skiing is a method for turning which rolls the ski onto one edge, allowing it to bend into an arc. Thus bent, the ski follows the turn without sliding. It contrasts with earlier techniques such as the stem Christie, which slides the ski outward from the body ("stemming") to generate sideways force. Parallel turns generate much less friction and are more efficient both in maintaining speed and minimizing skier effort.

The parallel turn was invented in the 1930s by Austrian ski racer Anton Seelos from Seefeld in Tirol. (Full article...)

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