What is Mountain? Its Features, Ranges and Importance

What is Mountain?

A mountain is a large area above the earth’s surface, often with rock faces that represent boulders. Although the definition varies, a mountain can be distinguished from a desert by its height and is usually a mountain peak, usually about 300 meters above the surrounding land. Some mountains are individual peaks, but most mountains are.

What is Mountain

Mountains are formed by tectonic forces, erosion, or volcanoes, acting over periods of tens of millions of years. After formation, mountains are gradually eroded by weathering, erosion and other factors, and erosion by rivers and glaciers.

Also Read:

Geomorphic Characteristics

Mountains have a special connecting property. The area is higher than the surrounding area. There are also large reliefs on the hills and mountains. However, individual mountains, ridges, and mountain belts formed by different tectonic processes are often characterized by different features.

Active volcanic chains, such as those found in island arcs, are usually high individual mountains separated by soft lowlands. In some chains, namely, those associated with “hot spots” (see below), only the volcano at one end of the chain is active. So these volcanoes are high, but erosion further shrinks the volcanic structures as the distance increases.

Tectonic Processes Create and Destroy Mountain Belts & Their Components

Mountains and mountain belts exist because tectonic processes create and sustain destructive heights. The topography of a mountain range depends not only on the processes that create the plateau but also on the forces that support the terrain and the types of processes (erosion or tectonics) that destroy it. In fact, before considering the other factors involved, it is necessary to understand the forces that contribute to the high field.

Mechanisms to Support Elevated Terrains

Two properties of rock that help support mountains, hills, and plateaus are strength and density. If the rocks were weak, the mountains would simply slide. At a more microscopic level, the strength of materials down a hill can be affected by the topographic level.

The lithosphere, the underlying layer, which extends from a few kilometers to more than 200 kilometers thick at the surface, is much stronger than the asthenosphere (see Plate Tectonics). The strength of the lithosphere comes from temperature; There is a thick lithosphere because it is very cold outside the earth. A cold, solid, and therefore stable lithosphere can support higher mountains than a thin lithosphere, just as thick ice in a lake or river can support larger people than thin ice.

Chemical Composition of Mountain

In terms of chemical composition, and because of the density of the clay, it is lighter than the base slab. The underwater section is only six or seven miles long. In the continental area, it is about 35 km thick, but under mountains and plateaus, it can reach 60 or 70 km. For example, many regions and plateaus are supported by strong crustal roots. On the other hand, the soft crust floats on top of the heavier mantle, like an iceberg floating in the ocean.

It should be noted that mold and masonry have different properties and do not form the same layer. In addition, their height differences have a different relationship with the terrain. Some mountains and plains float thanks to a large bubble. However, the subsoil under such areas may be soft and its strength is of little importance in supporting a hill or mountain.

Other mountains may rest on boulders that protrude under the weight of the mountains. The crust may be thicker than usual now, but not as thick as the thinner lithosphere. So the forces of the lithosphere support these mountains and support the core of the crust to a greater extent than where a stable layer is lacking.

For example, the Himalayas protruded through the crust of the Indian shield beneath a very cold, massive mountain bent under the weight of a tall mountain. The thickness of the earth’s crust is about 55 kilometers below the highest peak, the height of which is more than 8000 meters.

Most of the Earth’s 70 kilometers, however, lie in the far north under the Tibetan Plateau (or Tibetan Plateau), which is about 4,500 to 5,000 meters high, but the lithosphere is thinner than under the Himalayas. The Indian lithosphere supports the Himalayas, but the convexity of the Tibetan crust supports the high elevation of the mountain.

Tectonic Processes that Produce High Elevations

As discussed above, individual ridges, mountains, mountains, and plateaus exist due to geographic conditions that increase topography faster than erosion. The three main factors are volcanism, the horizontal movement of volcanoes that causes folding and collapse, and large-scale thermal and thermal expansion.

Volcanism

Most if not all volcanoes are believed to have surrounded (within ten kilometers), erupted, and erupted the structure. The shape and height of the volcano is mainly determined by the physical properties of the material. Non-porous materials are more likely to produce higher peaks than porous materials. Low-intensity lava flows, such as those in Hawaii, flow easily and produce loose rocks, but lava pools mixed with large rocks can form craggy mountains such as Mount Fuji in Japan, and Mount Rainier in the northwestern United States, or mountain.

Many volcanoes occur at high elevations, the presence of which is caused by the eruption of magma, molten rock from the mantle. It is discussed how important this process is in mountainous areas. many regions like

Crustal Shortening

In mountain ranges, plateaus are formed by compression of layers of a block or crust and/or folding of rock layers. The topography of mountain ranges and ridges depends on the degree of fault displacement, the angle at which the fault strikes, the frequency of crustal shortening by folding or folding, and the type of rock. Susceptible to damage and erosion. Much of the variation between mountain ranges is due to a combination of these factors.

Heating and Thermal Expansion

Stone, like most materials, expands when heated. Some mountains and plateaus are high because the earth’s crust and upper mantle are very hot. Most topographic changes on the ocean floor, mid-ocean ridges, and uplifts are caused by horizontal temperature variations in the outer 100 kilometers of the Earth. Warm regions are higher than cold regions or are shallower in the ocean. Many plateaus, such as the Massif Central in south-central France or the Ethiopian Plateau, are very high because the underlying material is heated.

Residual Mountain Ranges and Thermally Uplifted Belts

Isolated mountains and mountain belts exist on all continents, and most mountain belts outside the Pacific Rim or Alpine-Himalayan systems consist of mountain remnants or owe their existence to local thermal which is induction. I’m the one who’s guilty. Such linear regions have many residual gaps. For example, the Appalachian Mountains in the eastern United States formed as a result of the collision between Africa and North America in the late Paleozoic, prior to the formation of the present-day Atlantic Ocean.

The well-developed valley and ridge states of Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Virginia, and Kentucky are eroded, but the strong formations are preserved, defining former members of the soft formation. I’m here to stay. Also, Europe and Siberia collided in the late Paleozoic to form the Urals. Most of northeastern Siberia formed in the Mesozoic when the continental block collided with the rest of Siberia.

Some highlands follow older mountain ranges, but the present elevation is the result of recent growth due to the heating of the lithosphere and its thermal expansion. Strictly speaking, these places are not mountainous remnants. For example, the mountainous topography of Norway and northern Sweden shows the early Paleozoic period, marking the place where Europe and North America (including Greenland) collided 400 million years ago, long ago the formation of the present Atlantic Ocean. However, the current topography exists because the region warmed as Greenland was pulled away from Europe about 55 million years ago as the North Atlantic began to form.

Eastern Mountain Ranges

Similarly, the mountains of eastern Australia, including the Snowy Mountains, which contain the continent’s highest peaks, are post-Paleozoic. However, the current topography is the result of topographic heating when New Zealand separated from the east coast of Australia about 80-90 million years ago, when Australia inundated tens of millions of people in hot areas of the asthenosphere many years ago.

With the exception of the mountains of North Africa, almost all the mountains and plains of this continent and Antarctica are the result of thermal processes. The high margins of the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden in Africa and Arabia are due to the heating of the lithosphere and the presence of warm water when these narrow bodies of water began to open 20 to 40 million years of last. See the asthenosphere beneath the Ethiopian Plateau.

Many plains in central and southern Africa, such as the Ahggar, were formed from the hot spots below. The same can be said of the plains surrounding the East African Rift Valley and the high volcanoes in those plains, such as Mount Kilimanjaro and Kenya. Similarly, the Trans-Antarctic Mountains have been uplifted by recent warming in the lower lithosphere. Along the range are two volcanoes, Mount Erebus and Mount Terror, which are thought to exist because of shallow hot spots.

 

Most of the plains on continents not delineated by mountains are the result of the heating of the lithosphere. However, most are described as plains rather than hills.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Back to top button