Portal:Mountains

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Introduction

Silvretta panorama from the Ochsenkopf

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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An outwash fan is a fan-shaped body of sediments deposited by braided streams from a melting glacier. Sediment locked within the ice of the glacier gets transported by the streams of meltwater, and deposits on the outwash plain, at the terminus of the glacier. The outwash, the sediment transported and deposited by the meltwater and that makes up the fan, is usually poorly sorted due to the short distance traveled before being deposited. (Full article...)

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View of the range from Woodland Hills

The Santa Susana Mountains are a transverse range of mountains in Southern California, north of the city of Los Angeles, in the United States. The range runs east-west, separating the San Fernando and Simi valleys on its south from the Santa Clara River Valley to the north and the Santa Clarita Valley to the northeast. The Oxnard Plain is to the west of the Santa Susana Mountains. (Full article...)

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A tumulus (pl.: tumuli) is a mound of earth and stones raised over a grave or graves. Tumuli are also known as barrows, burial mounds or (in Siberia and Central Asia) kurgans, and may be found throughout much of the world. A cairn, which is a mound of stones built for various purposes, may also originally have been a tumulus.

Tumuli are often categorised according to their external apparent shape. In this respect, a long barrow is a long tumulus, usually constructed on top of several burials, such as passage graves. A round barrow is a round tumulus, also commonly constructed on top of burials. The internal structure and architecture of both long and round barrows have a broad range; the categorization only refers to the external apparent shape. (Full article...)

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Selected climbing article

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

Selected skiing article

Speed skiing is the sport of skiing downhill in a straight line at as high a speed as possible, as timed over a fixed stretch of ski slope. There are two types of contest: breaking an existing speed record or having the fastest run at a given competition. Speed skiers regularly exceed 200 kilometres per hour (124 mph) (Full article...)

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