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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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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Southern summit

Bukowica Range (Pasmo Bukowicy in Polish) part of the Pogórze Bukowskie and Low Beskids in southern Poland. The Bukowica created by the long mountain massif, situated in the eastern part of the Beskid Niski between the valleys of the Wisłok and Osławica rivers. The Bukowica Range separating the west Low Beskids from the east Pogórze Bukowskie.

It consists of a larger ridge of Bukowica with summits as Skibce (776 m. above the sea level ) in the north-west and Tokarnia (777 m. above the sea level ) in the south-east and the smaller range of Kamien Peak (718 m. above the sea level ). Bukowica is rather a monotonous mountainous bank and is heavily except Tokarnia covered with forest it has a panoramic view in all directions. The southern part is a steep rocky wall, while the other side consist of less steep rocky fields. (Full article...)

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A pancake dome is an unusual type of lava dome found on the planet Venus. They are widely scattered on that planet and often form groups or clusters, though with smaller numbers of pancake domes in each group than is typical for the more common shield volcanos. They are commonly found near coronae and tesserae (large regions of highly deformed terrain, folded and fractured in two or three dimensions, believed to be unique to Venus) in the lowland plains. Pancake domes are between 10 and 100 times larger than volcanic domes formed on Earth. (Full article...)

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Selected climbing article

The eight-thousanders are the 14 mountains recognised by the International Mountaineering and Climbing Federation (UIAA) as being more than 8,000 metres (26,247 ft) in height above sea level, and sufficiently independent of neighbouring peaks. There is no precise definition of the criteria used to assess independence, and at times, the UIAA has considered whether the list should be expanded to 20 mountain peaks by including the major satellite peaks of eight-thousanders. All of the eight-thousanders are located in the Himalayan and Karakoram mountain ranges in Asia, and their summits lie in an altitude known as the death zone.

From 1950 to 1964, all 14 eight-thousanders were summited by expedition climbers in the summer (the first to be summited was Annapurna I in 1950, and the last was Shishapangma in 1964), and from 1980 to 2021, all 14 were summited in the winter (the first to be summited in winter being Mount Everest in 1980, and the last being K2 in 2021). On a variety of statistical techniques, the deadliest eight-thousander is Annapurna I (one death – climber or climber support – for every three summiters), followed by K2 and Nanga Parbat (one death for every four to five summiters), and then Dhaulagiri and Kangchenjunga (one for every six to seven summiters). (Full article...)

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General images

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

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

Selected skiing article

logotype

The Four Hills Tournament (German: Vierschanzentournee) or the German-Austrian Ski Jumping Week (German: Deutsch-Österreichische Skisprung-Woche) is a ski jumping event composed of four World Cup events and has taken place in Germany and Austria each year since 1953. With few exceptions, it has consisted of the ski jumping events held at Oberstdorf, Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Innsbruck and Bischofshofen, in this order.

The Four Hills Tournament champion is the one who gets the most points over the four events. Unlike the World Cup ranking, however, the actual points scored during the competitions are the ones that are used to determine the winner. In 2005–06, Janne Ahonen and Jakub Janda shared the overall victory after finishing with exactly the same points total after the four competitions. In 2001–02, the anniversary 50th edition, Sven Hannawald was the first to achieve the grand slam of ski jumping, winning all four events in the same edition. In 2017–18 season Kamil Stoch became the second ski jumper in history to obtain this achievement, and just a year later, in the 2018–19 edition, Ryōyū Kobayashi became the third. (Full article...)

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