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 600 metres (2,000 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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Two cirques with semi-permanent snowpatches near Abisko National Park, Sweden

A cirque (French: [siʁk]; from the Latin word circus) is an amphitheatre-like valley formed by glacial erosion. Alternative names for this landform are corrie (from Scottish Gaelic: coire, meaning a pot or cauldron) and cwm (Welsh for 'valley'; pronounced [kʊm]). A cirque may also be a similarly shaped landform arising from fluvial erosion.

The concave shape of a glacial cirque is open on the downhill side, while the cupped section is generally steep. Cliff-like slopes, down which ice and glaciated debris combine and converge, form the three or more higher sides. The floor of the cirque ends up bowl-shaped, as it is the complex convergence zone of combining ice flows from multiple directions and their accompanying rock burdens. Hence, it experiences somewhat greater erosion forces and is most often overdeepened below the level of the cirque's low-side outlet (stage) and its down-slope (backstage) valley. If the cirque is subject to seasonal melting, the floor of the cirque most often forms a tarn (small lake) behind a dam, which marks the downstream limit of the glacial overdeepening. The dam itself can be composed of moraine, glacial till, or a lip of the underlying bedrock. (Full article...)

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Kaptai National Park

The Chittagong Hill Tracts (Bengali: পার্বত্য চট্টগ্রাম, romanized: Pārbôttô Chôṭṭôgrām), often shortened to simply the Hill Tracts and abbreviated to CHT, refers to the three hilly districts within the Chittagong Division in southeastern Bangladesh, bordering India and Myanmar (Burma) in the east: Khagrachhari, Rangamati, and Bandarban. Covering 13,295 square kilometres (5,133 sq mi), CHT is an extensively hilly area and home to a variety of tribal peoples in Bangladesh. The CHT were divided by the British in the 19th century into three tribal chieftaincies, the Chakma Circle, the Mong Circle and the Bohmong Circle. They formed a single district until 1984, when they were divided into three separate districts. (Full article...)

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In glaciology, a roche moutonnée (or sheepback) is a rock formation created by the passing of a glacier. The passage of glacial ice over underlying bedrock often results in asymmetric erosional forms as a result of abrasion on the "stoss" (upstream) side of the rock, and plucking (i.e. pieces cracked off) on the "lee" (downstream) side. Some geologists limit the term to features on scales of a metre to several hundred metres and refer to larger features as crag and tail, though they are formed in essentially the same way. (Full article...)

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Height above mean sea level is a measure of a location's vertical distance (height, elevation or altitude) in reference to a vertical datum based on a historic mean sea level. In geodesy, it is formalized as orthometric height. The zero level varies in different countries due to different reference points and historic measurement periods. Climate change and other forces can cause sea levels and elevations to vary over time. (Full article...)

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General images

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

Image 1Choppering out the injured – with Mt. Forbes in the background (from Mountain rescue)
Image 2Montes Apenninus on the Moon was formed by an impact event. (from Mountain range)
Image 3Cabane du Trient, a mountain hut in the Swiss Alps (from Mountaineering)
Image 4Alpine flora near Cascade Pass (from Montane ecosystem)
Image 5Alpine landscape below Malyovitsa Peak, Rila Mountain, Bulgaria (from Montane ecosystem)
Image 6Everest 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 7Stretcher box in Cumbria, England, prepositioned equipment saves mountain rescue teams having to trudge up mountains with it. (from Mountain rescue)
Image 8The city of La Paz reaches up to 4,000 metres (13,000 ft) in elevation. Mount Illimani dominates the city's skyline. (from Mountain)
Image 9Mont Blanc on the border between Aosta Valley, Italy, and Haute-Savoie, France, the highest point in the European Union (from Mountain)
Image 10Illustration of mountains that developed on a fold that has been thrust (from Mountain)
Image 11Fuji volcano (from Mountain)
Image 12An alpine mire in the Swiss Alps (from Mountain)
Image 13A stand of mountain birch at around 750 m in Trollheimen, typical of Scandinavian subalpine forests (from Montane ecosystem)
Image 14The northern Urals at high latitude and elevation have an alpine climate and barren ground. (from Mountain)
Image 15Mountaineers climbing in South Tyrol, Italy (from Mountain)
Image 16Climber approaching the summit of Manaslu at 8,163 metres (from Mountaineering)
Image 17The 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 18Edward Whymper (1840–1911), painting by Lance Calkin (from Mountaineering)
Image 19Waimea Canyon, Hawaii, is known for its montane vegetation. (from Montane ecosystem)
Image 20Tropical montane forest at around 2,000 m in Malaysia (from Montane ecosystem)
Image 21Treeline elevation by latitude (from Montane ecosystem)
Image 22Mountaineers proceed across snow fields on South Tyrol; other climbers are visible further up the slopes. (from Mountaineering)
Image 23Edmund Hillary (left) and Tenzing Norgay after successfully completing the first ascent of Mount Everest, 29 May 1953
Image 24Distribution of mountains by location and elevation (from Mountain)
Image 25Winter campers bivouaced in the snow (from Mountaineering)
Image 26Temperate montane forest in Bavaria, Germany (from Montane ecosystem)
Image 27British 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 28Mountaineers, c. 1900 (from Mountaineering)
Image 29A subalpine lake in the Cascade Range, Washington, United States (from Montane ecosystem)
Image 30Car of Horská služba (Czech Republic) (from Mountain rescue)
Image 31Pirin Mountain, Bulgaria, part of the fault-block Rila-Rhodope massif (from Mountain)
Image 32Antique climbing tools (from Mountaineering)
Image 33Mount Everest, Earth's highest mountain (from Mountain)
Image 34This 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 35The Namcha Barwa Himal, east part of the Himalayas as seen from space by Apollo 9 (from Mountain range)
Image 36K2, the second-highest mountain in the world, is revered for its isolation, difficulty, and the profound sense of awe it inspires among climbers. Many alpinists describe ascents of peaks like K2 as deeply spiritual experiences, combining physical challenge with introspection and transcendence. (from Mountaineering)
Image 37Iranian oak scrub in the Zagros Mountains (from Montane ecosystem)
Image 38Climbers ascending Mount Rainier looking at Little Tahoma Peak, United States (from Mountaineering)
Image 39Apennine Mountains and Trebbia river, Italy (from Mountain)
Image 40The Ocean Ridge, the world's longest mountain range (chain) (from Mountain range)
Image 41Chimborazo, Ecuador, whose summit is the point farthest away from the Earth's center (from Mountain)
Image 42The 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 43Edelweiss, a plant associated with mountain sports (from Mountaineering)
Image 44Fixed lines and ladders are distinguishing characteristics of expedition style mountaineering (from Mountaineering)

Selected skiing article

Vintage ski waxes, once used by U.S. Army ski troops. Left to right are: grip waxes in canisters (blue for "dry snow" and yellow for "wet and corn snow") and a paraffin glide wax.

Ski wax is a material applied to the bottom of snow runners, including skis, snowboards, and toboggans, to improve their coefficient of friction performance under varying snow conditions. The two main types of wax used on skis are glide waxes and grip waxes. They address kinetic friction—to be minimized with a glide wax—and static friction—to be achieved with a grip wax. Both types of wax are designed to be matched with the varying properties of snow, including crystal type and size, and moisture content of the snow surface, which vary with temperature and the temperature history of the snow. Glide wax is selected to minimize sliding friction for both alpine and cross-country skiing. Grip wax (also called "kick wax") provides on-snow traction for cross-country skiers, as they stride forward using classic technique.

Modern plastic materials (e.g. high-modulus polyethylene and Teflon), used on ski bases, have excellent gliding properties on snow, which in many circumstances diminish the added value of a glide wax. Likewise, uni-directional textures (e.g. fish scale or micro-scale hairs) underfoot on cross-country skis can offer a practical substitute for grip wax for those skiers, using the classic technique. (Full article...)

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