10. Stunning Mountain

A natural elevated portion of the earth’s land is usually called a mountain. About 24% of the earth’s land is covered by mountains and about 15 % of the global population lives in it. The collision of tectonic plates and volcanic eruption, erosional activity and climatic forces give shape to the different types of mountains.                                

Look at the interior of earth and its temperatures.

Mountain formation and volcanic eruption are related with the geological activities mostly under the surface of earth’s crust by collision of tectonic plates and volcanic eruption through weak vents.

Volcanic mountains  The Earth’s crust is made up of huge slabs called tectonic plates. There are two types of plates, oceanic plates lying under the oceans and continental plates lying under the continents. These plates collide with each other in different ways. Read article tectonic plates for more knowledge.

When the oceanic plate collides with the continental plate, the oceanic plate being heavier slides down or subducts and the continental plate rises up in the form of a mountain. During collision, vents, fissures or cracks are formed. The lava (hot molten rocks or magma), volcanic ash and various gasses under pressure in the outer mantle layer are expelled from vents. When the hot magma or lava dries up with time it takes the shape of volcanic mountains. Volcanic eruption can take place on flat land forming flat rounded low slope mountains of pure lava.

When a continental plate collides with the other continental plate, neither of the plate subducts but all the mass due to compression rises up in the form of huge mountains. Volcanic eruptions rarely occur during it.

When the two continental plates touch each other sidewise, a tremendous friction and jerky situation develops which results in the formation of earthquakes. The sudden volcanic eruptions also cause earthquakes.

Fold Mountains are the common types of mountains and formed from the folding of the earth crust, due to collision of tectonic plates in different ways, which causes the part of the earth push upward creating mountains in folds or layers. When continental tectonic plates collide with oceanic plates, the denser plate (oceanic plates goes downward forming the root of the mountain while the lighter continental plate goes upward forming the high rise folded mountain. There are many tectonic plates. Some of them are the size of a country, and all of them float at a very slow speed, a few millimeters a year .Mountains occur more often in oceans than on land; some islands are the peaks of mountains coming out of the water.

Dome Mountains are formed from hot molten material (magma) rising from the Earth’s mantle into the crust that pushes overlying sedimentary rock layers bowed upward to form a “dome” shape. Unlike a volcano, the magma typically does not reach the Earth’s surface. Instead, the magma cools underneath the surface and forms the core of these mountains.

Fault Block Mountains are formed when the earth crust is pushed up or pulled apart by fault or ridge causing one side to rise and the other side to fall. The line at which this break takes place is called a fault.

Up warped mountains are formed when the pressure of molten rock beneath the crust layer in the mantle region pushes the crust upwards forming sloped mountains. in up warped mountains the entire area of the rock layer is lifted from below vertically above the surrounding land.  

List of Top 10 World’s Highest Mountains   

Rank	Mountain	Height	Range	Country	Continent	Thumbnail
1st	Mount Everest	8,848 m	Himalaya	China/Nepal	Asia
2nd	K2 / Karakoram Two	8,611 m	Karakoram	Pakistan/China	Asia
3rd	Kangchenjunga	8,586 m	Himalaya	India/Nepal	Asia
4th	Lhotse	8,516 m	Himalaya	Nepal/China	Asia
5th	Makalu	8,485 m	Himalaya	Nepal/China	Asia
6th	Cho Oyu	8,188 m	Himalaya	Nepal/China	Asia
7th	Dhaulagiri	8,167 m	Himalaya	Nepal	Asia
8th	Manaslu	8,163 m	Himalaya	Nepal	Asia
9th	Nanga Parbat	8,126 m	Himalaya	Pakistan	Asia
10th	Annapurna	8,091 m	Himalaya	Nepal	Asia

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Note: that all the top ten highest mountains are in the continent of Asia.

Zia Ahmed Khan email: khanziaahmed50@gmail.com

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