mountain

A mountain is an elevated portion of the Earth's crust, generally with steep sides that show significant exposed

bedrock

. A mountain differs from a

plateau

in having a limited summit area, and is larger than a

hill

, typically rising at least 300 metres (1000 feet) above the surrounding land. A few mountains are isolated summits, but most occur in

mountain range

s.

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

river

s and

glacier

s.

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 above mean sea level. The highest known mountain on any planet in the Solar System is

Olympus Mons

on Mars at .

Definition

There is no universally accepted definition of a mountain. Elevation, volume, relief, steepness, spacing and continuity have been used as criteria for defining a mountain. In the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' a mountain is defined as "a natural elevation of the earth surface rising more or less abruptly from the surrounding level and attaining an altitude which, relatively to the adjacent elevation, is impressive or notable."

Whether a landform is called a mountain may depend on local usage.

Mount Scott

outside Lawton, Oklahoma, USA, is only from its base to its highest point. Whittow's ''Dictionary of Physical Geography'' states "Some authorities regard eminences above as mountains, those below being referred to as hills."

In the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland, a mountain is usually defined as any summit at least high, which accords with the official UK government's definition that a mountain, for the purposes of access, is a summit of or higher. In addition, some definitions also include a topographical prominence requirement, such as that the mountain rises above the surrounding terrain. At one time the U.S. Board on Geographic Names defined a mountain as being or taller, but has abandoned the definition since the 1970s. Any similar landform lower than this height was considered a hill. However, today, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) concludes that these terms do not have technical definitions in the US.

The UN Environmental Programme's definition of "mountainous environment" includes any of the following:
* Class 1: Elevation greater than .
* Class 2: Elevation between and .
* Class 3: Elevation between and .
* Class 4: Elevation between and , with a slope greater than 2 degrees.
* Class 5: Elevation between and , with a slope greater than 5 degrees and/or elevation range within .
* Class 6: Elevation between and , with a elevation range within .
* Class 7: Isolated inner basins and plateaus less than in area that are completely surrounded by Class 1 to 6 mountains, but do not themselves meet criteria for Class 1 to 6 mountains.
Using these definitions, mountains cover 33% of Eurasia, 19% of South America, 24% of North America, and 14% of Africa. As a whole, 24% of the Earth's land mass is mountainous.

Geology

There are three main types of mountains:

volcanic

, fold, and block. All three types are formed from plate tectonics: when portions of the Earth's crust move, crumple, and dive. Compressional forces,

isostatic

uplift and intrusion of igneous matter forces surface rock upward, creating a landform higher than the surrounding features. The height of the feature makes it either a hill or, if higher and steeper, a mountain. Major mountains tend to occur in long linear arcs, indicating tectonic plate boundaries and activity.

Volcanoes

Volcanoes are formed when

a plate is pushed below another plate

, or at a mid-ocean ridge or hotspot. At a depth of around 100 km, melting occurs in rock above the slab (due to the addition of water), and forms

magma

that reaches the surface. When the magma reaches the surface, it often builds a volcanic mountain, such as a

shield volcano

or a

stratovolcano

. Examples of volcanoes include

Mount Fuji

in Japan and

Mount Pinatubo

in the Philippines. The magma does not have to reach the surface in order to create a mountain: magma that solidifies below ground can still form dome mountains, such as Navajo Mountain in the US.

Fold mountains

Fold mountains occur when two plates collide: shortening occurs along thrust faults and the crust is overthickened. Since the less dense continental crust "floats" on the denser mantle rocks beneath, the weight of any crustal material forced upward to form hills,

plateau

s or mountains must be

balanced by the buoyancy force

of a much greater volume forced downward into the mantle. Thus the continental crust is normally much thicker under mountains, compared to lower lying areas. Rock can fold either symmetrically or asymmetrically. The upfolds are

anticline

s and the downfolds are

syncline

s: in asymmetric folding there may also be recumbent and overturned folds. The Balkan Mountains and the

Jura Mountains

are examples of fold mountains.

Block mountains

Block mountains are caused by faults in the crust: a plane where rocks have moved past each other. When rocks on one side of a fault rise relative to the other, it can form a mountain. The uplifted blocks are block mountains or horsts. The intervening dropped blocks are termed

graben

: these can be small or form extensive rift valley systems. This form of

landscape

can be seen in East Africa, the Vosges and Rhine valley, and the Basin and Range Province of Western North America. These areas often occur when the regional stress is extensional and the crust is thinned.

Erosion

During and following uplift, mountains are subjected to the agents of

erosion

(water, wind, ice, and gravity) which gradually wear the uplifted area down. Erosion causes the surface of mountains to be younger than the rocks that form the mountains themselves.

Glacial processes

produce characteristic landforms, such as pyramidal peaks, knife-edge arêtes, and bowl-shaped cirques that can contain lakes.

Plateau

mountains, such as the

Catskills

, are formed from the erosion of an uplifted plateau.

Climate

Climate in the mountains becomes colder at high

elevation

s, due to an interaction between

radiation

and

convection

. Sunlight in the visible spectrum hits the ground and heats it. The ground then heats the air at the surface. If

radiation

were the only way to transfer heat from the ground to space, the

greenhouse effect

of gases in the atmosphere would keep the ground at roughly , and the temperature would decay exponentially with height.

However, when air is hot, it tends to expand, which lowers its density. Thus, hot air tends to rise and transfer heat upward. This is the process of

convection

. Convection comes to equilibrium when a parcel of air at a given altitude has the same density as its surroundings. Air is a poor conductor of heat, so a parcel of air will rise and fall without exchanging heat. This is known as an

adiabatic process

, which has a characteristic pressure-temperature dependence. As the pressure gets lower, the temperature decreases. The rate of decrease of temperature with elevation is known as the adiabatic lapse rate, which is approximately 9.8 °C per kilometre (or per 1000 feet) of altitude.

Note that the presence of water in the atmosphere complicates the process of convection. Water vapor contains latent heat of vaporization. As air rises and cools, it eventually becomes saturated and cannot hold its quantity of water vapor. The water vapor condenses (forming

cloud

s), and releases heat, which changes the lapse rate from the dry adiabatic lapse rate to the moist adiabatic lapse rate (5.5 °C per kilometre or per 1000 feet)
The actual lapse rate can vary by altitude and by location.

Therefore, moving up 100 metres on a mountain is roughly equivalent to moving 80 kilometres (45 miles or 0.75° of

latitude

) towards the nearest pole. This relationship is only approximate, however, since local factors such as proximity to oceans (such as the Arctic Ocean) can drastically modify the climate. As the altitude increases, the main form of precipitation becomes

snow

and the winds increase.

The effect of the climate on the ecology at an elevation can be largely captured through a combination of amount of precipitation, and the biotemperature, as described by Leslie Holdridge in 1947. Biotemperature is the mean temperature; all temperatures below are considered to be 0 °C. When the temperature is below 0 °C, plants are dormant, so the exact temperature is unimportant. The peaks of mountains with permanent snow can have a biotemperature below .

Ecology

The colder climate on mountains affects the plants and animals residing on mountains. A particular set of plants and animals tend to be adapted to a relatively narrow range of climate. Thus, ecosystems tend to lie along elevation bands of roughly constant climate. This is called altitudinal zonation.
In regions with dry climates, the tendency of mountains to have higher precipitation as well as lower temperatures also provides for varying conditions, which enhances zonation.

Some plants and animals found in altitudinal zones tend to become isolated since the conditions above and below a particular zone will be inhospitable and thus constrain their movements or dispersal. These isolated ecological systems are known as sky islands.

Altitudinal zones tend to follow a typical pattern. At the highest elevations, trees cannot grow, and whatever life may be present will be of the alpine type, resembling

tundra

. Just below the

tree line

, one may find subalpine forests of

needleleaf

trees, which can withstand cold, dry conditions. Below that, montane forests grow. In the temperate portions of the earth, those forests tend to be needleleaf trees, while in the tropics, they can be broadleaf trees growing in a

rain forest

.

Mountains and humans

The highest known permanently tolerable altitude is at . At very high altitudes, the decreasing atmospheric pressure means that less oxygen is available for breathing, and there is less protection against solar radiation (

UV

). Above elevation, there is not enough oxygen to support human life. This is known as the "death zone". The summits of

Mount Everest

and

K2

are in the death zone.

Mountain societies and economies

Mountains are generally less preferable for

human

habitation than lowlands, because of harsh weather and little level ground suitable for

agriculture

. While 7% of the land area of Earth is above , only 140 million people live above that altitude and only 20-30 million people above elevation. About half of mountain dwellers live in the

Andes

, Central Asia, and Africa.

With limited access to infrastructure, only a handful of human communities exist above of elevation. Many are small and have heavily specialized economies, often relying on industries such as agriculture, mining, and tourism. An example of such a specialized town is La Rinconada, Peru, a gold-mining town and the highest elevation human habitation at . A counterexample is

El Alto

,

Bolivia

, at , which has a highly diverse service and manufacturing economy and a population of nearly 1 million.

Traditional mountain societies rely on agriculture, with higher risk of crop failure than at lower elevations. Minerals often occur in mountains, with

mining

being an important component of the economics of some montane societies. More recently,

tourism

supports mountain communities, with some intensive development around attractions such as

national park

s or

ski resorts

. About 80% of mountain people live below the poverty line.

Most of the world's

river

s are fed from mountain sources, with snow acting as a storage mechanism for downstream users. More than half of humanity depends on mountains for water.

In geopolitics mountains are often seen as preferable "natural boundaries" between polities.

Mountaineering

Mountain climbing, or alpinism is the

sport

,

hobby

or

profession

of hiking, skiing, and climbing mountains. While mountaineering began as attempts to reach the highest point of unclimbed big mountains it has branched into specializations that address different aspects of the mountain and consists of three areas: rock-craft, snow-craft and skiing, depending on whether the route chosen is over rock,

snow

or

ice

. All require experience, athletic ability, and technical knowledge of the terrain to maintain safety.

Mountains as sacred places

Mountains often play a significant role in

religion

. There are for example a number of sacred mountains within

Greece

such as

Mount Olympus

which was held to be the home of the gods. In Japanese culture, the 3,776.24 m (12,389 ft) volcano of

Mount Fuji

is also held to be sacred with tens of thousands of Japanese ascending it each year.

Mount Kailash

, in the Tibet Autonomous Region of China, is considered to be sacred in four religions:

Hinduism

,

Bon

,

Buddhism

, and

Jainism

. In

Ireland

, pilgrimages are made up the

Mount Brandon

by Irish Catholics. The

Himalaya

n peak of

Nanda Devi

is associated with the

Hindu

goddesses Nanda and Sunanda; it has been off-limits to climbers since 1983.

Mount Ararat

is a sacred mountain, as it is believed to be the landing place of

Noah's Ark

. In Europe and especially in the

Alps

, summit crosses are often erected on the tops of prominent mountains.

Superlatives

Heights of mountains are typically measured above sea level. Using this metric,

Mount Everest

is the highest mountain on Earth, at . There are at least 100 mountains with heights of over above sea level, all of which are located in central and southern Asia. The highest mountains above sea level are generally not the highest above the surrounding terrain. There is no precise definition of surrounding base, but

Denali

,

Mount Kilimanjaro

and

Nanga Parbat

are possible candidates for the tallest mountain on land by this measure. The bases of mountain islands are below sea level, and given this consideration

Mauna Kea

( above sea level) is the world's tallest mountain and

volcano

, rising about from the

Pacific Ocean

floor.

The highest mountains are not generally the most voluminous.

Mauna Loa

() is the largest mountain on Earth in terms of base area (about ) and volume (about ).

Mount Kilimanjaro

is the largest non-shield volcano in terms of both base area () and volume ().

Mount Logan

is the largest non-volcanic mountain in base area ().

The highest mountains above sea level are also not those with peaks farthest from the centre of the Earth, because the figure of the Earth is not spherical. Sea level closer to the equator is several miles farther from the centre of the Earth. The summit of Chimborazo,

Ecuador

's tallest mountain, is usually considered to be the farthest point from the Earth's centre, although the southern summit of

Peru

's tallest mountain,

Huascarán

, is another contender.
Both have elevations above sea level more than less than that of Everest.

See also

* List of mountain ranges
* List of peaks by prominence
* List of ski areas and resorts
* Lists of mountains
*

References

External links

*
*

{{Authority control

Geography terminology
Earth's crust