Mountain

INTRODUCTION

Mount Whitney, California

At 4,418 m (14,494 ft), Mount Whitney in the Sierra Nevada of eastern California is the highest peak in the United
States outside of Alaska. The Sequoia and Kings Canyon national parks, which feature giant sequoia trees, include
the Mount Whitney area.
Pat O'Hara Photography

Mountain, name usually applied to region of land that is raised rather steeply above the surrounding
terrain. Mountains are distinguishable from plateaus by mountains usually limited summit area
(mountains are generally much narrower at the top than at the base) and they are distinguishable
from hills by mountains generally higher elevation. The elevation, or altitude, of a mountain is given
as the height of the summit above sea level. Therefore, a mountain with an elevation of 4000 m
(13,100 ft) may rise to a level of only 3000 m (9840 ft) above the surrounding land.

Mount Everest
Mount Everest, the highest mountain in the world, with a height of 8,850 m (29,035 ft), rises in the Himalayas on
the frontier of Nepal and Tibet. Numerous groups tried to reach the summit before the successful attempt by two
members of a British expedition on May 29, 1953.
Keren Su/Tony Stone Images

Mountains are normally found in groups or ranges consisting of peaks, ridges, and intermontane
(between mountains) valleys. Except for certain mountains that occur singly, the smallest unit
pertaining to mountains is the range, comprising either a single complex ridge or a series of ridges
generally alike in origin, age, and form. Several closely related ranges in a parallel alignment or
chainlike cluster are known as a mountain system; an elongated series of systems forms a mountain
chain; and an extensive complex of ranges, systems, and chains is known as a belt, or cordillera.

II

FORMATION

Geologists believe that most mountains are formed by movements in the earths crust. The plate
tectonics model has helped explain many of these processes. This model describes the crust of the
earth as made up of a number of vast plates that move about at the rate of a few centimeters a year
leading to the collision and separation of continents and the subsequent development of mountain
belts.
Movements that result in collisions between plates tend to raise the crust by faulting, folding, or
arching up layers of rock. Movements that result in separation, or rifting, of plates cause some blocks
of crust to sink, leaving other blocks to tower above them. Volcanic eruptions also raise mountains,
and much of the worlds volcanic activity is concentrated along the active margins of crustal plates.
Finally, some ranges of low mountains are created by nontectonic processes, chief among these being
the sculpturing effects of erosion, which wears away softer rock and leaves the harder rock.

Uplift

Collisions between plates of the earths crust trigger various geologic processes that result in crustal
uplift. A common process, produced by horizontal compression, is the deformation of crustal strata
into folds or wrinkles (see Geomorphology) or the thrusting of vast, thick sheets of rock over one
another (see Fault). The Himalayas, for example, were raised by the compression that accompanied
collision of the Indian plate with the Eurasian one. Europes Alps and Jura Mountains also formed
because of horizontal compression, generated in their case by collision of the African plate with the
Eurasian one. Similarly, the Appalachian Mountains rose in response to forces caused by repeated
collisions between the North American plate and the African and European ones, and most of the
Rocky Mountains rose because of the compressive effects generated by collisions between the North
American and Pacific plates.
Formation of a basin-and-range structure, best exemplified by the basin-and-range areas in Nevada
and Utah (see Great Basin), is the result of movement of rock along faults, or major deep cracks, in
the crust of the earth. Occasionally, such movement, called faulting, causes rock bordering on faults
to be lifted vertically in great blocks. The raised edges of the blocks then appear as mountains, the
depressed edges as valleys. Such mountains are also widely known as fault-block mountains.
A third type of mountain formed by uplifting is called the dome. The dome structure is typified by the
Henry and Abajo Mountains in Utah, and by the Adirondack Mountains in New York. These mountains
are created by deep-seated intrusion of igneous, or molten, rock that arches the rocks at the surface.

Erosion

Rock on the surface of the earth is constantly exposed to erosion. Because rocks of different
composition resist erosion differently, areas of relatively hard rock may stand high above areas of
softer, more easily eroded rock. Mountains resulting from this erosive sculpturing of the land may be
linear in appearance if the resistant rock is the upturned edge of a sedimentary rock unit, flat-topped
buttes or mesas if the harder rock is a flat-lying unit, or complex and irregular ranges if the resistant
rocks are an uncovered intrusive igneous mass. Portions of the Ozark Plateau (also known as the
Ozark Mountains) in Arkansas and Missouri are good examples of mountains created by the forces of
erosion.

Volcanism

Mountains formed by volcanic action are well known because of their usually isolated occurrence and
periodically dangerous aspect. Most spectacular and probably most familiar are the conical peaks
composed of lava and volcanic debris, such as Mount Rainier and Mount Saint Helens in the western
United States, Mount Erebus in Antarctica, Mount Vesuvius in Italy, and Fuji in Japan. Many of these
volcanic mountains have summit craters that still emit steam and debris; others no longer showing

signs of volcanic activity may be only dormant, not extinct. Shield volcanoes, typified by Mauna Loa
and Mauna Kea in Hawaii, are less spectacular even when quite high, since the physical properties of
their formative material have shaped them into broad shieldlike masses that deemphasize their
height.

III

IMPORTANCE

Mountains affect life in many ways. Apart from their mineral, forest, agricultural, and recreational
resource value, they exert a significant influence on climate and determine the course of economic or
historical trends. Especially high mountain ranges, such as the Sierra Nevada in the U.S., the Andes in
South America, and the Himalayas in Asia, markedly affect climate and weather patterns over vast
areas of the earth because they stand as barriers to regularly circulating air masses. Moisture carried
inland by winds from the Pacific Ocean, for example, is lost in the form of rain and snow on the
windward sides of the Sierra Nevada and Andes; the leeward, or inland, side is drier, and the land
beyond is frequently arid.
The importance of mountains with regard to the history and economy of various nations can be shown
by their influence upon the development of the western United States. The first travelers and settlers,
and then the earliest railroads, avoided mountain crossings because of the dangers and costs
involved. Later, however, the vast deposits of minerals that became so vitally important to the
development of several western states were found exposed principally in mountainous areas, and the
lure of striking it rich drew people and railroads west despite the hardships encountered in
traversing the passes. As a result, transportation routes and patterns, with large populations centered
about them, were established; most of these remain today.
The political significance of mountains has been noticeable throughout human history. Mountain
barriers with their relatively narrow and easily defendable passes have made various ranges
throughout the world natural political boundaries, second in strategic importance only to oceans and
seas.
Most of the worlds highest mountains lie in the great Himalayan system and the cordillera stretching
through North and South America. The accompanying table includes the highest mountains found on
each continent.
See Erosion; Geology; Volcano. For additional information, see separate articles on most mountains
and mountain systems mentioned.
Microsoft Encarta 2008. 1993-2007 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.