{"id":895,"date":"2019-08-15T21:00:47","date_gmt":"2019-08-16T01:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/estudiopatagon.com\/themes\/wordpress\/veenv2\/?p=76"},"modified":"2019-08-15T21:00:47","modified_gmt":"2019-08-16T01:00:47","slug":"far-far-away-behind-the-word-mountains","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hemsouths.english.ucsb.edu\/?p=895","title":{"rendered":"Far far away, behind the word mountains"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

A mountain is a large landform that rises above the surrounding land in a limited area, usually in the form of a peak. A mountain is generally steeper than a hill. Mountains <\/strong>are formed through tectonic forces or volcanism. <\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

These forces can locally raise the surface of the earth. Mountains erode slowly through the action of rivers, weather conditions<\/a>, and glaciers. A few mountains are isolated summits, but most occur in huge mountain ranges<\/strong>.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

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High elevations on mountains produce colder climates than at sea level. 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<\/strong> and more for resource extraction and recreation, such as mountain climbing.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

The highest mountain on Earth <\/strong>is Mount Everest<\/strong> in the Himalayas of Asia<\/strong>, whose summit is 8,850 m (29,035 ft) above mean sea level. The highest known mountain on any planet in the Solar System<\/a> is Olympus Mons on Mars at 21,171 m (69,459 ft).<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Definition<\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

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<\/strong> 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.”<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

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Pink paper over blue background<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Whether a landform is called a mountain may depend on local usage. Mount Scott outside Lawton, Oklahoma, USA<\/strong>, is only 251 m (823 ft) from its base to its highest point. <\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Physical Geography states “Some authorities regard eminences above 600 metres (2,000 ft) as mountains, those below being referred to as hills.”<\/p> Whittow’s Dictionary <\/cite><\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Geology<\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

There are three main types of mountains<\/strong>:\u00a0volcanic<\/a>,\u00a0fold<\/a>, and\u00a0block<\/a>.\u00a0All three types are formed from\u00a0plate tectonics: when portions of the Earth’s crust move<\/strong>, crumple<\/strong>, and dive<\/strong>. Compressional forces,\u00a0isostatic\u00a0uplift\u00a0and intrusion of\u00a0igneous matter<\/a>\u00a0forces 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<\/strong>, indicating tectonic plate boundaries and activity. <\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Volcanoes<\/h3>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Volcanoes <\/strong>are formed when\u00a0a plate is pushed below another plate<\/strong>, or at a\u00a0mid-ocean ridge\u00a0or\u00a0hotspot.\u00a0At a depth of around 100\u00a0km, melting occurs in rock above the slab (due to the addition of water), and forms\u00a0magma\u00a0that reaches the surface. When the magma reaches the surface, it often builds a volcanic mountain, such as a\u00a0shield volcano\u00a0or a\u00a0stratovolcano.\u00a0Examples of volcanoes<\/strong> include\u00a0Mount Fuji<\/a>\u00a0in Japan and\u00a0Mount Pinatubo<\/a>\u00a0in 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\u00a0dome mountains, such as\u00a0Navajo Mountain<\/a>\u00a0in the US. <\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Fold mountains<\/h3>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Fold mountains<\/strong> occur when two plates collide: shortening occurs along thrust faults and the crust is overthickened.\u00a0Since the less dense\u00a0continental crust\u00a0“floats” on the denser\u00a0mantle<\/a>\u00a0rocks beneath, the weight of any crustal material forced upward to form hills,\u00a0plateaus\u00a0or mountains must be\u00a0balanced by the buoyancy force\u00a0of a much greater volume forced downward into the mantle. Thus the continental crust is normally much thicker under mountains, compared to lower lying areas.\u00a0Rock can\u00a0fold\u00a0either symmetrically <\/strong>or asymmetrically<\/strong>. The upfolds are\u00a0anticlines\u00a0and the downfolds are\u00a0synclines: in asymmetric folding there may also be recumbent and overturned folds. The\u00a0Balkan Mountains<\/a>\u00a0and the\u00a0Jura Mountains<\/a>\u00a0are examples of fold mountains. <\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

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This is a example caption<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Block mountains<\/h3>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Block mountains<\/strong> are caused by\u00a0faults\u00a0in 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.\u00a0The uplifted blocks are block mountains<\/strong> or\u00a0horsts<\/strong>. The intervening dropped blocks are termed\u00a0graben: these can be small or form extensive\u00a0rift valley\u00a0systems. This form of\u00a0landscape\u00a0can be seen in\u00a0East Africa, the\u00a0Vosges, the\u00a0Basin and Range Province\u00a0of Western North America<\/strong> and the\u00a0Rhine<\/a>\u00a0valley. These areas often occur when the regional stress is extensional and the\u00a0crust\u00a0is thinned. <\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A mountain is a large landform that rises above the surrounding land in a limited area, usually in the form of a peak. A mountain…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":831,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[14],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hemsouths.english.ucsb.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/895"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hemsouths.english.ucsb.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hemsouths.english.ucsb.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hemsouths.english.ucsb.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hemsouths.english.ucsb.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=895"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hemsouths.english.ucsb.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/895\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hemsouths.english.ucsb.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/831"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hemsouths.english.ucsb.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=895"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hemsouths.english.ucsb.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=895"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hemsouths.english.ucsb.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=895"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}