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). The tallest mountain including submarine terrain is Mauna Kea in Hawaii from its underwater base at 9,330 m (30,610 ft); some scientists consider it to be the tallest on earth. (Full article...)

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Selected mountain-related landform

A Rogen moraine, also called ribbed moraine, is a subglacially (i.e. under a glacier or ice sheet) formed type of moraine landform, that mainly occurs in Fennoscandia, Scotland, Ireland and Canada. It is one of the three main types of hummocky moraines. They cover large areas that have been covered by ice, and occur mostly in what is believed to have been the central areas of the ice sheets. Rogen moraines are named after Lake Rogen in Härjedalen, Sweden, the landform's type locality. Rogen Nature Reserve serves to protect the unusual area.

The landform occurs in groups that are often closely and regularly spaced. They consist of glacial drift, with till being the most common constituent. The individual moraines are large, wavy ridges orientated transverse to ice flow. Drumlins are often found in close proximity to Rogen moraines, and are often interpreted to be formed at the same time as the Rogen moraines. Although Rogen moraines can span a large range of sizes, the most common distribution seems to be 10–30 metres high, 150–300 metres wide and 300–1,200 metres long. (Full article...)

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Selected mountain range

The Needles, Black Hills

The Black Hills is an isolated mountain range rising from the Great Plains of North America in western South Dakota and extending into Wyoming, United States. Black Elk Peak, which rises to 7,242 feet (2,207 m), is the range's highest summit. The name of the range in Lakota is Pahá Sápa. It encompasses the Black Hills National Forest. It formed as a result of an upwarping of ancient rock, after which the removal of the higher portions of the mountain mass by stream erosion produced the present-day topography. The hills are so called because of their dark appearance from a distance, as they are covered in evergreen trees.

American Indian tribes have a long history in the Black Hills and consider it a sacred site. After conquering the Cheyenne in 1776, the Lakota took the territory of the Black Hills, which became central to their culture. In 1868, the federal US government signed the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868, establishing the Great Sioux Reservation west of the Missouri River, and exempting the Black Hills from all non-indigenous settlement “forever”; however, when American settlers discovered gold here as a result of George Armstrong Custer's Black Hills Expedition in 1874, a gold rush swept in miners. The US government conquered the Black Hills and forcibly relocated the Lakota, following the Great Sioux War of 1876, to five smaller reservations in western South Dakota, selling off 9 million acres (36,000 km²) of their former land. Unlike most of South Dakota, the Black Hills were settled primarily by European Americans from population centers to the west and south of the region, as miners flocked there from earlier gold boom locations in Colorado and Montana. (Full article...)

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A grass mountain (German: Grasberg) in topography is a mountain covered with low vegetation, typically in the Alps and often steep-sided. The nature of such cover, which often grows particularly well on sedimentary rock, will reflect local conditions. (Full article...)

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Selected climbing article

A couloir (French: [ku.lwaʁ], "passage" or "corridor") is a narrow gully with a steep gradient in a mountainous terrain. (Full article...)

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General images

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

Image 1The Namcha Barwa Himal, east part of the Himalayas as seen from space by Apollo 9 (from Mountain range)
Image 2The Ocean Ridge, the world's longest mountain range (chain) (from Mountain range)
Image 3Temperate montane forest in Bavaria, Germany (from Montane ecosystem)
Image 4Fuji volcano (from Mountain)
Image 5Pirin Mountain, Bulgaria, part of the fault-block Rila-Rhodope massif (from Mountain)
Image 6Tropical montane forest at around 2,000 m in Malaysia (from Montane ecosystem)
Image 7Everest 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 8Climbers ascending Mount Rainier looking at Little Tahoma Peak, United States (from Mountaineering)
Image 9The 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 10Antique climbing tools (from Mountaineering)
Image 11Mountaineers, c. 1900 (from Mountaineering)
Image 12Choppering out the injured – with Mt. Forbes in the background (from Mountain rescue)
Image 13Stretcher box in Cumbria, England, prepositioned equipment saves mountain rescue teams having to trudge up mountains with it. (from Mountain rescue)
Image 14A subalpine lake in the Cascade Range, Washington, United States (from Montane ecosystem)
Image 15Alpine flora near Cascade Pass (from Montane ecosystem)
Image 16Chimborazo, Ecuador, whose summit is the point farthest away from the Earth's center (from Mountain)
Image 17Mont Blanc on the border between Aosta Valley, Italy, and Haute-Savoie, France, the highest point in the European Union (from Mountain)
Image 18Mountaineers climbing in South Tyrol, Italy (from Mountain)
Image 19Alpine landscape below Malyovitsa Peak, Rila Mountain, Bulgaria (from Montane ecosystem)
Image 20An alpine mire in the Swiss Alps (from Mountain)
Image 21This 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 22Iranian oak scrub in the Zagros Mountains (from Montane ecosystem)
Image 23Mount Everest, Earth's highest mountain (from Mountain)
Image 24Car of Horská služba (Czech Republic) (from Mountain rescue)
Image 25British 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 26Montes Apenninus on the Moon was formed by an impact event. (from Mountain range)
Image 27The city of La Paz reaches up to 4,000 metres (13,000 ft) in elevation. (from Mountain)
Image 28A stand of mountain birch at around 750 m in Trollheimen, typical of Scandinavian subalpine forests (from Montane ecosystem)
Image 29Apennine Mountains and Trebbia river, Italy (from Mountain)
Image 30Fixed lines and ladders are distinguishing characteristics of expedition style mountaineering (from Mountaineering)
Image 31Mountaineers proceed across snow fields on South Tyrol; other climbers are visible further up the slopes. (from Mountaineering)
Image 32Climber approaching the summit of Manaslu at 8,163 metres (from Mountaineering)
Image 33Edmund Hillary (left) and Tenzing Norgay after successfully completing the first ascent of Mount Everest, 29 May 1953
Image 34The northern Urals at high latitude and elevation have an alpine climate and barren ground. (from Mountain)
Image 35Treeline elevation by latitude (from Montane ecosystem)
Image 36Winter campers bivouaced in the snow (from Mountaineering)
Image 37The 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 38Cabane du Trient, a mountain hut in the Swiss Alps (from Mountaineering)
Image 39Waimea Canyon, Hawaii, is known for its montane vegetation. (from Montane ecosystem)
Image 40Distribution of mountains by location and elevation (from Mountain)
Image 41Illustration of mountains that developed on a fold that has been thrust (from Mountain)
Image 42Edelweiss, a plant associated with mountain sports (from Mountaineering)
Image 43Edward Whymper (1840–1911), painting by Lance Calkin (from Mountaineering)

Selected skiing article

Ski sickness or Häusler's disease is a form of motion sickness which some skiers develop when weather conditions are bad. Poor visibility in heavy fog can bring on the condition as well as psychological factors such as fear of heights or fear of mountains. High speed and falling may also contribute as when descending rapidly atmospheric pressure changes in the ear from high to low altitude. Symptoms are similar to other sicknesses brought about by motion and include: dizziness, headaches and nausea and in more extreme cases vomiting.

In whiteout conditions, the brain is unable to determine orientation or movement accurately. The condition is caused by the rhythmic turning motion of skiing and other effects such as a reduction in sensory feedback from constrained feet. In 1995 Rudolf Häusler of the University of Berne was the first described to have this disease. Ski sickness could affect up to 10% of skiers. Professor Häusler found that over-the-counter prescription medicines for motion sickness relieved the symptoms for most affected people. (Full article...)

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