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Mount Everest, Earth's highest mountain. A mountain is an elevated portion of the Earth's crust, generally with steep sides that show significant exposed bedrock.Although definitions vary, a mountain may differ from a plateau in having a limited summit area, and is usually higher than a hill, typically rising at least 300 metres (980 ft) above the surrounding land.
Some definitions include a topographical prominence requirement, typically 100 feet (30.5 m) or 500 feet (152.4 m). [4] In practice, mountains in Scotland are frequently referred to as "hills" no matter what their height, as reflected in names such as the Cuillin Hills and the Torridon Hills. In Wales, the distinction is more a term of land use ...
Examples are mountains, hills, polar caps, and valleys, which are found on all of the terrestrial planets. The scientific study of landforms is known as geomorphology. In onomastic terminology, toponyms (geographical proper names) of individual landform objects (mountains, hills, valleys, etc.) are called oronyms. [4]
A mountain range or hill range is a series of mountains or hills arranged 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]
For hills with low prominence in Britain, a definition of "parent Marilyn" is sometimes used to classify low hills ("Marilyn" being a British term for a hill with a prominence of at least 150 m). [3] [4] This is found by dividing the region of Britain in question into territories, one for each Marilyn. The parent Marilyn is the Marilyn whose ...
Dale – Low area between hills, often with a river running through it; Defile – Narrow pass or gorge between mountains or hills; Dell – Small secluded hollow; Depression – Landform sunken or depressed below the surrounding area; Delta, River – Silt deposition landform at the mouth of a river; Desert pavement – Type of desert earth ...
A popular and intuitive way to distinguish mountains from subsidiary peaks is by their height above the highest saddle connecting it to a higher summit, a measure called topographic prominence or re-ascent (the higher summit is called the "parent peak"). A common definition of a mountain is a summit with 300 m (980 ft) prominence.
Rocky Mountain foothills near Denver, Colorado. Foothills or piedmont are geographically defined as gradual increases in elevation at the base of a mountain range, higher hill range or an upland area. They are a transition zone between plains and low relief hills and the adjacent topographically higher mountains, hills, and uplands. [1]