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Appalachian Mountains

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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Satellite image of kettle lakes in Yamal Peninsula (Northern Siberia), adjacent to the Gulf of Ob (right). The lake colors indicate amounts of sediment or depth.

A kettle (also known as a kettle hole, kettlehole, or pothole) is a depression or hole in an outwash plain formed by retreating glaciers or draining floodwaters. The kettles are formed as a result of blocks of dead ice left behind by retreating glaciers, which become surrounded by sediment deposited by meltwater streams as there is increased friction. The ice becomes buried in the sediment and when the ice melts, a depression is left called a kettle hole, creating a dimpled appearance on the outwash plain. Lakes often fill these kettles; these are called kettle hole lakes. Another source is the sudden drainage of an ice-dammed lake and when the block melts, the hole it leaves behind is a kettle. As the ice melts, ramparts can form around the edge of the kettle hole. The lakes that fill these holes are seldom more than 10 m (33 ft) deep and eventually fill with sediment. In acid conditions, a kettle bog may form but in alkaline conditions, it will be kettle peatland. (Full article...)

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View from Kidder Mountain

The Wapack Range, sometimes referred to as the Pack Monadnock Range, is a 20-mile-long (32 km) range of mountains in south-central New Hampshire and adjacent Massachusetts, in the northeastern United States. The range is considered very scenic and rugged with many bare summits and ledges ranging from 1,800 to 2,290 feet (550 to 700 m). The 22-mile (35 km) Wapack Trail, one of the oldest interstate hiking trails in the United States, traverses it. The Wapack Range is also the northern terminus of the 90-mile (140 km) Midstate Trail.

The range, composed of heavily metamorphosed schist and quartzite, is oriented north–south and is located in the towns of New Ipswich, Temple, Sharon, Peterborough, and Greenfield, New Hampshire; and in Massachusetts, the towns of Ashburnham and Ashby. (Full article...)

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Trap rock, also known as either trapp or trap, is any dark-colored, fine-grained, non-granitic intrusive or extrusive igneous rock. Types of trap rock include basalt, peridotite, diabase, and gabbro. Trap is also used to refer to flood (plateau) basalts, such as the Deccan Traps and Siberian Traps. The erosion of trap rock created by the stacking of successive lava flows often creates a distinct stairstep landscape from which the term trap was derived from the Swedish word trappa, which means "stairway".

The slow cooling of magma either as a sill or as a thick lava flow sometimes creates systematic vertical fractures within the resulting layer of trap rock. These fractures often form rock columns that are typically hexagonal, but also four- to eight-sided. (Full article...)

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Altitude sickness warning – Indian Army

Altitude sickness, the mildest form being acute mountain sickness (AMS), is a harmful effect of high altitude, caused by rapid exposure to low amounts of oxygen at high elevation. People can respond to high altitude in different ways. Symptoms may include headaches, vomiting, tiredness, confusion, trouble sleeping, and dizziness. Acute mountain sickness can progress to high-altitude pulmonary edema (HAPE) with associated shortness of breath or high-altitude cerebral edema (HACE) with associated confusion. Chronic mountain sickness may occur after long-term exposure to high altitude.

Altitude sickness typically occurs only above 2,500 metres (8,000 ft), though some are affected at lower altitudes. Risk factors include a prior episode of altitude sickness, a high degree of activity, and a rapid increase in elevation. Diagnosis is based on symptoms and is supported for those who have more than a minor reduction in activities. It is recommended that at high altitude any symptoms of headache, nausea, shortness of breath, or vomiting be assumed to be altitude sickness. (Full article...)

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General images

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

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

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Windburn is a condition whereby a sunburn obtained in cool or cloudy conditions is incorrectly attributed to the effects of the wind rather than the sun, mostly in North America. The main reason is that in cool or cloudy conditions many people are unaware that they are still vulnerable to the burning effects of the sun's UV radiation, so fail to take precautionary sun protection measures.

The fact that windburn was really misattributed sunburn, rather than a distinct condition, was shown as early as 1936 by English skin specialist Charles Howard White of Cambridge and American physicist William Henry Crew of New York University. Nonetheless, the accepted existence of windburn remains a widely held misconception. (Full article...)

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