Mountain range

A mountain range or hill range is a series of

mountains or hills ranged in a line and connected by
high ground. A mountain system or mountain belt
is a group of mountain ranges with similarity in form,
structure, and alignment that have arisen from the
same cause, usually an orogeny.[1] Mountain ranges
are formed by a variety of geological processes, but
most of the significant ones on Earth are the result of
plate tectonics. Mountain ranges are also found on
many planetary mass objects in the Solar System and
are likely a feature of most terrestrial planets.

Mountain ranges are usually segmented by highlands The Himalayas, the highest mountain range on Earth,
or mountain passes and valleys. Individual mountains seen from space
within the same mountain range do not necessarily

have the same geologic structure or petrology. They may be a mix of different orogenic expressions and
terranes, for example thrust sheets, uplifted blocks, fold mountains, and volcanic landforms resulting in a
variety of rock types.

Contents
Major ranges
Divisions and categories
Climate
Erosion
Extraterrestrial "Montes"
See also
References
External links

Major ranges
Most geologically young mountain ranges on the
Earth's land surface are associated with either the
Pacific Ring of Fire or the Alpide Belt. The Pacific
Ring of Fire includes the Andes of South America,
extends through the North American Cordillera
along the Pacific Coast, the Aleutian Range, on
through Kamchatka, Japan, Taiwan, the An 1865 lithograph showing the High Tatras mountain
Philippines, Papua New Guinea, to New range in Slovakia and Poland by Karel Kořistka appearing
Zealand.[2] The Andes is 7,000 kilometres in a book by August Heinrich Petermann.
(4,350 mi) long and is often considered the world's
longest mountain system.[3]

The Alpide belt includes Indonesia and Southeast Asia, through the Himalaya, Caucasus Mountains, Balkan
Mountains fold mountain range, the Alps, and ends in the Spanish mountains and the Atlas Mountains.[4] The
belt also includes other European and Asian mountain ranges. The Himalayas contain the highest mountains in
the world, including Mount Everest, which is 8,848 metres (29,029 ft) high and traverses the border between
China and Nepal.[5]

Mountain ranges outside these two systems include the

Arctic Cordillera, the Urals, the Appalachians, the
Scandinavian Mountains, the Great Dividing Range, the
Altai Mountains and the Hijaz Mountains. If the
definition of a mountain range is stretched to include
underwater mountains, then the Ocean Ridges form the
longest continuous mountain system on Earth, with a
length of 65,000 kilometres (40,400 mi).[6]

Divisions and categories

The Ocean Ridge, the world's longest mountain
The mountain systems of the earth are characterized by a range (chain)
tree structure, where mountain ranges can contain sub-
ranges. The sub-range relationship is often expressed as a
parent-child relationship. For example, the White Mountains of New Hampshire and the Blue Ridge
Mountains are sub-ranges of the Appalachian Mountains. Equivalently, the Appalachians are the parent of the
White Mountains and the Blue Ridge Mountains, and the White Mountains and the Blue Ridge Mountains are
children of the Appalachians.

The parent-child expression extends to the sub-ranges themselves: the Sandwich Range and the Presidential
Range are children of the White Mountains, while the Presidential Range is a parent to the Northern
Presidential Range and Southern Presidential Range.

Climate
The position of mountains influences climate, such as rain or snow. When air masses move up and over
mountains, the air cools producing orographic precipitation (rain or snow). As the air descends on the leeward
side, it warms again (following the adiabatic lapse rate) and is drier, having been stripped of much of its
moisture. Often, a rain shadow will affect the leeward side of a range.[7]

Erosion
Mountain ranges are constantly subjected to erosional forces which work to
tear them down. The basins adjacent to an eroding mountain range are then
filled with sediments that are buried and turned into sedimentary rock. Erosion
is at work while the mountains are being uplifted until the mountains are
reduced to low hills and plains.

The early Cenozoic uplift of the Rocky Mountains of Colorado provides an

example. As the uplift was occurring some 10,000 feet (3,000 m) of mostly
Mesozoic sedimentary strata were removed by erosion over the core of the
mountain range and spread as sand and clays across the Great Plains to the
east.[8] This mass of rock was removed as the range was actively undergoing
uplift. The removal of such a mass from the core of the range most likely
caused further uplift as the region adjusted isostatically in response to the The Andes, the world's
removed weight. longest mountain range on
the surface of a continent,
Rivers are traditionally believed to be the principal cause of mountain range seen from the air
erosion, by cutting into bedrock and transporting sediment. Computer
simulation has shown that as mountain belts change from tectonically active to
inactive, the rate of erosion drops because there are fewer abrasive particles in the water and fewer
landslides.[9]

Extraterrestrial "Montes"
Mountains on other planets and natural satellites of the Solar System
are often isolated and formed mainly by processes such as impacts,
though there are examples of mountain ranges (or "Montes")
somewhat similar to those on Earth. Saturn's moon Titan[10] and
Pluto,[11] in particular exhibit large mountain ranges in chains
composed mainly of ices rather than rock. Examples include the
Mithrim Montes and Doom Mons on Titan, and Tenzing Montes and
Hillary Montes on Pluto. Some terrestrial planets other than Earth also Hillary and Tenzing Montes on Pluto
exhibit rocky mountain ranges, such as Maxwell Montes on Venus (14 July 2015)
taller than any on Earth[12] and Tartarus Montes on Mars,[13] Jupiter's
moon Io has mountain ranges formed from tectonic processes
including Boösaule Montes, Dorian Montes, Hi'iaka Montes and
Euboea Montes.[14]

See also
Cordillera
Drainage divide Montes Apenninus on the Moon was
List of mountain ranges formed by an impact event.
List of mountain types
Lists of mountains
Massif
Mountain chain
Mountain formation
Ridge – an elongated mountain or hill, or chain of them
References
1. "Definition of mountain system" (https://www.mindat.org/glossary/mountain_system).
Mindat.org. Hudson Institute of Mineralogy. Retrieved 26 August 2017.
2. Rosenberg, Matt. "Pacific Ring of Fire" (http://geography.about.com/cs/earthquakes/a/ringoffire.
htm). About.com.
3. Thorpe, Edgar (2012). The Pearson General Knowledge Manual. Pearson Education India.
p. A-36.
4. Chester, Roy (2008). Furnace of Creation, Cradle of Destruction (https://archive.org/details/furn
aceofcreatio00ches). AMACOM Div American Mgmt Assn. p. 77 (https://archive.org/details/furn
aceofcreatio00ches/page/77).
5. "Nepal and China agree on Mount Everest's height" (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/860
8913.stm). BBC. 8 April 2010.
6. "The mid-ocean ridge is the longest mountain range on Earth" (http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/fa
cts/midoceanridge.html). US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Service. 11 Jan 2013.
7. "Orographic precipitation" (https://www.britannica.com/science/orographic-precipitation).
Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 23 January 2020.
8. "A Guide to the Geology of Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado" (https://web.archive.org/
web/20121024065844/http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/romo5/wegemann/sec6.htm)
. USGS. Archived from the original (http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/romo5/wegema
nn/sec6.htm) on 2012-10-24.
9. Egholm, David L.; Knudsen, Mads F.; Sandiford, Mike (2013). "Lifespan of mountain ranges
scaled by feedbacks between landslide and erosion by rivers". Nature. 498 (7455): 475–478.
Bibcode:2013Natur.498..475E (https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2013Natur.498..475E).
doi:10.1038/nature12218 (https://doi.org/10.1038%2Fnature12218). PMID 23803847 (https://pu
bmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23803847). S2CID 4304803 (https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:
4304803).
10. Mitri, Giuseppe; Bland, Michael T.; Showman, Adam P.; Radebaugh, Jani; Stiles, Bryan; Lopes,
Rosaly M. C.; Lunine, Jonathan I.; Pappalardo, Robert T. (2010). "Mountains on Titan: Modeling
and observations" (https://semanticscholar.org/paper/440e7dc6a3bce3094b6148b2b1d28a0e7
6d52859). Journal of Geophysical Research. 115 (E10): E10002.
Bibcode:2010JGRE..11510002M (https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2010JGRE..11510002M).
doi:10.1029/2010JE003592 (https://doi.org/10.1029%2F2010JE003592). ISSN 0148-0227 (htt
ps://www.worldcat.org/issn/0148-0227). S2CID 12655950 (https://api.semanticscholar.org/Corp
usID:12655950).
11. Gipson, Lillian (24 July 2015). "New Horizons Discovers Flowing Ices on Pluto" (http://www.na
sa.gov/feature/new-horizons-discovers-flowing-ices-on-pluto). NASA. Retrieved 25 July 2015.
12. Keep, Myra; Hansen, Vicki L. (1994). "Structural history of Maxwell Montes, Venus: Implications
for Venusian mountain belt formation" (https://semanticscholar.org/paper/209691b62a790a7b5
626f2cac46c36fe190348f9). Journal of Geophysical Research. 99 (E12): 26015.
Bibcode:1994JGR....9926015K (https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1994JGR....9926015K).
doi:10.1029/94JE02636 (https://doi.org/10.1029%2F94JE02636). ISSN 0148-0227 (https://ww
w.worldcat.org/issn/0148-0227). S2CID 53311663 (https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:53
311663).
13. Plescia, J.B. (2003). "Cerberus Fossae, Elysium, Mars: a source for lava and water" (https://zen
odo.org/record/1259599). Icarus. 164 (1): 79–95. Bibcode:2003Icar..164...79P (https://ui.adsab
s.harvard.edu/abs/2003Icar..164...79P). doi:10.1016/S0019-1035(03)00139-8 (https://doi.org/1
0.1016%2FS0019-1035%2803%2900139-8). ISSN 0019-1035 (https://www.worldcat.org/issn/0
019-1035).
14. Jaeger, W. L. (2003). "Orogenic tectonism on Io" (https://doi.org/10.1029%2F2002JE001946).
Journal of Geophysical Research. 108 (E8): 12–1–12–18. Bibcode:2003JGRE..108.5093J (http
s://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2003JGRE..108.5093J). doi:10.1029/2002JE001946 (https://doi.
org/10.1029%2F2002JE001946). ISSN 0148-0227 (https://www.worldcat.org/issn/0148-0227).

External links
Peakbagger Ranges Home Page (http://www.peakbagger.com/rangindx.aspx)
Bivouac.com (http://bivouac.com/PgxPg.asp?PgxId=276)

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