Mountain
Elevated landforms with steep sides and significant exposed bedrock.
A mountain is an elevated portion of the surface of a planet, generally with steep sides that show significant exposed bedrock. Although there are no universally accepted definitions, a mountain is usually considered higher than a hill. By definition, mountains are often thought of as being a landform which is higher than 2000 ft. It may either have a limited summit area or be a smaller plateau with high elevation and steep sides. A few mountains are isolated summits, but most occur in mountain ranges.
Quick Facts
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Lore & Background
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.
Reader's Guide
The highest mountain on Earth is Mount Everest in the Himalayas of Asia, whose summit is 8850 m above mean sea level. The highest known mountain on any planet in the Solar System is Olympus Mons on Mars at 21171 m. The highest mountain on Earth from base to peak is Mauna Kea in Hawaii, which rises 9,330 m from its base at the bottom of the ocean; some scientists consider it to be the tallest on Earth. 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.
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