Portal:Mountains

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Introduction

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). 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

An esker, eskar, eschar, or os, sometimes called an asar, osar, or serpent kame, is a long, winding ridge of stratified sand and gravel, examples of which occur in glaciated and formerly glaciated regions of Europe and North America. Eskers are frequently several kilometres long and, because of their uniform shape, look like railway embankments. (Full article...)

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Location of Chiprovtsi

Chiprovtsi (Bulgarian: Чипровци, pronounced [ˈtʃiproft͡si]) is a small town in northwestern Bulgaria, administratively part of Montana Province. It lies on the shores of the river Ogosta in the western Balkan Mountains, very close to the Bulgarian-Serbian border. A town of about 2,000 inhabitants, Chiprovtsi is the administrative centre of Chiprovtsi Municipality that also covers nine nearby villages.

Chiprovtsi is thought to have been founded in the Late Middle Ages as a mining and metalsmithing centre. Attracting German ore miners who introduced Roman Catholicism to the area, the town grew in importance as a cultural, economic, and religious centre of the Bulgarian Catholics and the entire Bulgarian northwest during the first few centuries of Ottoman rule. The apogee of this upsurge was the anti-Ottoman Chiprovtsi Uprising of 1688. After the suppression of the uprising, some of the town's population fled to Habsburg-ruled lands; those unable to flee were killed or enslaved by the Ottomans. (Full article...)

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Fault blocks are very large blocks of rock, sometimes hundreds of kilometres in extent, created by tectonic and localized stresses in Earth's crust. Large areas of bedrock are broken up into blocks by faults. Blocks are characterized by relatively uniform lithology. The largest of these fault blocks are called crustal blocks. Large crustal blocks broken off from tectonic plates are called terranes. Those terranes which are the full thickness of the lithosphere are called microplates. Continent-sized blocks are called variously microcontinents, continental ribbons, H-blocks, extensional allochthons and outer highs.

Because most stresses relate to the tectonic activity of moving plates, most motion between blocks is horizontal, that is parallel to the Earth's crust by strike-slip faults. However vertical movement of blocks produces much more dramatic results. Landforms (mountains, hills, ridges, lakes, valleys, etc.) are sometimes formed when the faults have a large vertical displacement. Adjacent raised blocks (horsts) and down-dropped blocks (grabens) can form high escarpments. Often the movement of these blocks is accompanied by tilting, due to compaction or stretching of the crust at that point. (Full article...)

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Selected climbing article

Free climbing is a form of rock climbing in which the climber can only use climbing equipment for climbing protection but not as an artificial aid to help them in ascending the route. Free climbing, therefore, cannot use any of the tools that are used in aid climbing to help overcome the obstacles encountered while ascending a route. The development of free climbing was an important moment in the history of rock climbing, including the concept and definition of what determined a first free ascent (or FFA) of a route by a climber.

Free climbing can be performed in several formats depending on the type of climbing protection used, including traditional climbing (uses temporary removable protection), sport climbing (uses permanently fixed in-situ protection), and bouldering and free solo climbing (uses no protection whatsoever). (Full article...)

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General images

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

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

Selected skiing article

The International Biathlon Union (IBU; German: Internationale Biathlon-Union) is the international governing body of biathlon. Its headquarters were in Salzburg, Austria, until May 2020, when the Federation moved to Anif, on the outskirts of the city. It was rocked by a corruption scandal that broke in 2018, concerning the Russians bribing its top two officials. In 2022 Russia and Belarus were suspended from all international biathlon competitions until further notice. (Full article...)

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