Portal:Mountains

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Uluguru Mountains, in Tanzania

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 drumlin, from the Irish word droimnín ("little ridge"), first recorded in 1833, in the classical sense is an elongated hill in the shape of an inverted spoon or half-buried egg formed by glacial ice acting on underlying unconsolidated till or ground moraine. Assemblages of drumlins are referred to as fields or swarms; they can create a landscape which is often described as having a 'basket of eggs topography'. (Full article...)

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Glarus Alps from Braunwald

The Glarus Alps (German: Glarner Alpen) are a mountain range in central Switzerland. They are bordered by the Uri Alps and the Schwyz Alps to the west, the Lepontine Alps to the south, the Appenzell Alps to the northeast. The eastern part of the Glarus Alps contains a major thrust fault that was declared a geologic UNESCO World Heritage Site (the Swiss Tectonic Arena Sardona).

The Glarus Alps extend well beyond the canton of Glarus, including parts of the cantons of Uri, Graubünden, and St Gallen. Conversely, not all the mountains in the canton of Glarus are part of the Glarus Alps, with those to the north of the Urner Boden and to the west of the valley of the river Linth considered to be part of the Schwyz Alps. (Full article...)

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A lava cone is a type of volcano composed primarily of viscous lava flows. The volcanic cone can contain a convex profile due to the flank flows of viscous lava. (Full article...)

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A bosun's chair (or boatswain's chair) is a device used to suspend a person from a rope to perform work aloft. Originally just a short plank or swath of heavy canvas, many modern bosun's chairs incorporate safety devices similar to those found in rock climbing harnesses such as safety clips and additional lines.

In addition to the maritime applications they were developed for, bosun's chairs are also used for working at height in various maintenance industries. In commercial window cleaning, the term bosun's chair describes devices suspended from rope and equipped with seatboards, such as descent-only controlled descent apparatuses (CDAs). (Full article...)

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General images

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

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

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Nordic combined is a winter sport in which athletes compete in cross-country skiing and ski jumping. The Nordic combined at the Winter Olympics has been held since the first Winter Olympics in 1924, while the FIS Nordic Combined World Cup has been held since 1983. Many Nordic combined competitions use the Gundersen method, where placement in the ski jumping segment results in time (dis)advantages added to the contestant's total in the cross-country skiing segment (e.g. the ski jumping winner starts the cross-country skiing race at 00:00:00 while the one with the lowest jumping score starts with the longest time penalty). (Full article...)

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