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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A glacier (US: /ˈɡleɪʃər/; UK: /ˈɡlæsiər, ˈɡleɪsiər/) is a persistent body of dense ice that is constantly moving under its own weight. A glacier forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation over many years, often centuries. It acquires distinguishing features, such as crevasses and seracs, as it slowly flows and deforms under stresses induced by its weight. As it moves, it abrades rock and debris from its substrate to create landforms such as cirques, moraines, or fjords. Although a glacier may flow into a body of water, it forms only on land and is distinct from the much thinner sea ice and lake ice that form on the surface of bodies of water.

On Earth, 99% of glacial ice is contained within vast ice sheets (also known as "continental glaciers") in the polar regions, but glaciers may be found in mountain ranges on every continent other than the Australian mainland, including Oceania's high-latitude oceanic island countries such as New Zealand. Between latitudes 35°N and 35°S, glaciers occur only in the Himalayas, Andes, and a few high mountains in East Africa, Mexico, New Guinea and on Zard-Kuh in Iran. With more than 7,000 known glaciers, Pakistan has more glacial ice than any other country outside the polar regions. Glaciers cover about 10% of Earth's land surface. Continental glaciers cover nearly 13 million km² (5 million sq mi) or about 98% of Antarctica's 13.2 million km² (5.1 million sq mi), with an average thickness of ice 2,100 m (7,000 ft). Greenland and Patagonia also have huge expanses of continental glaciers. The volume of glaciers, not including the ice sheets of Antarctica and Greenland, has been estimated at 170,000 km³. (Full article...)

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Sněžka – the highest peak of the Giant Mountains

The Giant Mountains, Krkonoše, or Karkonosze (Czech: [ˈkr̩konoʃɛ] ^ⓘ, Polish pronunciation: [karkɔˈnɔʂɛ] ^ⓘ, German: Riesengebirge pronounced [ˈʁiːzn̩ɡəˌbɪʁɡə] ^ⓘ), are a mountain range located in the north of the Czech Republic and the south-west of Poland, part of the Sudetes mountain system (part of the Bohemian Massif). The Czech-Polish border, which divides the historic regions of Bohemia and Silesia, runs along the main ridge. The highest peak, Sněžka (Polish: Śnieżka), is the Czech Republic's highest natural point with an elevation of 1,603 metres (5,259 ft).

On both sides of the border, large areas of the mountains are designated national parks (Krkonoše National Park in the Czech Republic and Karkonosze National Park in Poland), and these together comprise the Krkonoše/Karkonosze Transboundary Biosphere Reserve under the UNESCO Man and the Biosphere Programme. The source of the River Elbe is within the Giant Mountains. The range has a number of major ski resorts, and is a popular destination for tourists engaging in downhill and cross-country skiing, hiking, cycling and other activities. (Full article...)

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Trap rock, also known as either trapp or trap, is any dark-colored, fine-grained, non-granitic intrusive or extrusive igneous rock. Types of trap rock include basalt, peridotite, diabase, and gabbro. Trap is also used to refer to flood (plateau) basalts, such as the Deccan Traps and Siberian Traps. The erosion of trap rock created by the stacking of successive lava flows often creates a distinct stairstep landscape from which the term trap was derived from the Swedish word trappa, which means "stairway".

The slow cooling of magma either as a sill or as a thick lava flow sometimes creates systematic vertical fractures within the resulting layer of trap rock. These fractures often form rock columns that are typically hexagonal, but also four- to eight-sided. (Full article...)

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A climbing harness is a device which allows a climber access to the safety of a rope. It is used in rock and ice climbing, abseiling, and lowering; this is in contrast to other activities requiring ropes for access or safety such as industrial rope work (such as window cleaning), construction, and rescue and recovery, which use safety harnesses instead. (Full article...)

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General images

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

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

Selected skiing article

A detachable chairlift or high-speed chairlift is a type of passenger aerial lift, which, like a fixed-grip chairlift, consists of numerous chairs attached to a constantly moving wire rope (called a haul rope) that is strung between two (or more) terminals over intermediate towers. They are now commonplace at all but the smallest of ski resorts. Some are installed at tourist attractions as well as for urban transportation.

The significance of detachable chairlift technology is primarily the speed and capacity. Detachable chairlifts move far faster than their fixed-grip brethren, averaging 1,000 feet per minute (11.3 mph, 18 km/h, 5.08 m/s) versus a typical fixed-grip speed of 500 ft/min (5.6 mph, 9 km/h, 2.54 m/s). Because the cable moves faster than most passengers could safely disembark and load, each chair is connected to the cable by a powerful spring-loaded cable grip which detaches at terminals, allowing the chair to slow considerably for convenient loading and unloading at a typical speed of 200 ft/min (2 mph, 4 km/h, 1 m/s), a speed slower even than fixed-grip bunny chairlifts. (Full article...)

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