Mountain

LANDFORM

Mountain, landform that rises prominently above its surroundings, generally exhibiting

steep slopes, a relatively confined summit area, and considerable local relief. Mountains
generally are understood to be larger than hills, but the term has no standardized geological
meaning. Very rarely do mountains occur individually. In most cases, they are found in
elongated ranges or chains. When an array of such ranges is linked together, it constitutes a
mountain belt. For a list of selected mountains of the world, see below.
A mountain belt is many tens to hundreds of kilometres wide and hundreds to thousands
of kilometres long. It stands above the surrounding surface, which may be a coastal plain, as
along the western Andes in northern Chile, or a high plateau, as within and along the Plateau of
Tibet in southwest China. Mountain ranges or chains extend tens to hundreds of kilometres in
length. Individual mountains are connected by ridges and separated by valleys. Within many
mountain belts are plateaus, which stand high but contain little relief. Thus, for example,
the Andes constitute a mountain belt that borders the entire west coast of South America; within
it are both individual ranges, such as the Cordillera Blanca in which lies Peru’s highest peak,
Huascarán, and the high plateau, the Altiplano, in southern Peru and western Bolivia.
Geomorphic Characteristics
Mountainous terrains have certain unifying characteristics. Such terrains have higher elevations
than do surrounding areas. Moreover, high relief exists within mountain belts and ranges. Individual
mountains, mountain ranges, and mountain belts that have been created by different tectonic processes,
however, are often characterized by different features.

Chains of active volcanoes, such as those occurring at island arcs, are commonly marked by
individual high mountains separated by large expanses of low and gentle topography. In some chains,
namely those associated with “hot spots” (see below), only the volcanoes at one end of the chain are
active. Thus, those volcanoes stand high, but with increasing distance away from them erosion has
reduced the sizes of volcanic structures to an increasing degree.

Tectonic Processes That Create And Destroy Mountain Belts And Their
Components

Mountains and mountain belts exist because tectonic processes have created and maintained high
elevations in the face of erosion, which works to destroy them. The topography of a mountain belt
depends not only on the processes that create the elevated terrain but also on the forces that support this
terrain and on the types of processes (erosional or tectonic) that destroy it. In fact, it is necessary to
understand the forces that support elevated terrains before considering the other factors involved.

Mechanisms that support elevated terrains

Two properties of rocks contribute to the support of mountains, mountain belts, and plateaus,
namely strength and density. If rocks had no strength, mountains would simply flow away. At a subtler
level, the strength of the material beneath mountains can affect the scale of the topography.

In terms of strength, the lithosphere, the thickness of which varies over the face of the Earth from
a few to more than 200 kilometres, is much stronger than the underlying layer,
the asthenosphere (see plate tectonics). The strength of the lithosphere is derived from its temperature;
thick lithosphere exists because the outer part of the Earth is relatively cold. Cold, thick, and therefore
strong lithosphere can support higher mountain ranges than can thin lithosphere, just as thick ice on
a lake or river is better able to support larger people than thin ice.
In terms of chemical composition, and therefore density, the Earth’s crust is lighter than the
underlying mantle. Beneath the oceans, the typical thickness of the crust is only six to seven kilometres.
Beneath the continental regions, the average thickness is about 35 kilometres, but it can reach 60 or 70
kilometres beneath high mountain ranges and plateaus. Thus, most ranges and plateaus are buoyed up by
thick crustal roots. To some extent the light crust floats on the heavier mantle, as icebergs float on the
oceans.
It should be noted that the crust and lithosphere are defined by different properties and do not
constitute the same layer. Moreover, variations in their thicknesses have different relationships to the
overlying topography. Some mountain ranges and plateaus are buoyed up by a thick crust. The
lithosphere beneath such areas, however, can be thin, and its strength does not play a significant role in
supporting the range or plateau. Other ranges may overlie thick lithospheric plates, which are flexed down
by the weight of the mountains. The crust beneath such ranges is likely to be thicker than normal but not
as thick as it would be if the lithosphere were thin. Thus, the strength of the lithosphere supports these
mountains and maintains the base of the crust at a higher level than would have been the case had the
strong layer been absent. For instance, the Himalayas have been thrust onto the crust of the Indian shield,
which is underlain by particularly cold, thick lithosphere that has been flexed down by the weight of the
high range. The thickness of the crust is about 55 kilometres beneath the high peaks, which stand more
than 8,000 metres high. The thickest crustal segment of 70 kilometres, however, lies farther north beneath
the Plateau of Tibet (or Tibetan Plateau), whose altitude is about 4,500 to 5,000 metres but whose
lithosphere is much thinner than that beneath the Himalayas. The strong Indian lithosphere helps to
support the Himalayas, but the buoyancy of the thick Tibetan crust maintains the high elevation of the
plateau.

Tectonic processes that produce high elevations

As noted above, individual mountains, mountain ranges, mountain belts, and plateaus exist because
tectonic processes have elevated terrains faster than erosion could destroy them. High elevations are
created by three major processes: these are volcanism, horizontal crustal shortening as manifested by
folding and by faulting, and the heating and thermal expansion of large terrains.

Tectonic processes that destroy elevated terrains

Besides erosion, which is the principal agent that destroys mountain belts, two tectonic processes help to
reduce high elevations. Horizontal crustal extension and associated crustal thinning can reduce and
eliminate crustal roots. When this happens, mountain belts widen and their mean elevation diminishes.
Similarly, the cooling and associated thermal contraction of the outer part of the Earth leads to a reduction
of the average height of a mountain belt.