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The distinction between a hill and a mountain is unclear and largely subjective, but a hill is universally considered to be not as tall, or as steep as a mountain. Geographers historically regarded mountains as hills greater than 1,000 feet (304.8 meters) above sea level.
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]
Mountains and hills can be characterized in several ways. Some mountains are volcanoes and can be characterized by the type of lava and eruptive history. Other mountains are shaped by glacial processes and can be characterized by their shape. Finally, many mountains can be characterized by the type of rock that make up their composition.
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.
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 ]
In contrast, flat topped hills with areas as small as 0.1 km 2 (0.039 sq mi) in the Elbe Sandstone Mountains, Germany, are described as mesas. [ 1 ] [ 2 ] [ 3 ] Less strictly, a very broad, flat-topped, usually isolated hill or mountain of moderate height bounded on at least one side by a steep cliff or slope and representing an erosion remnant ...
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]
From a 1639 map of Hispaniola by Johannes Vingboons, showing use of hill profiles. The most ancient form of relief depiction in cartography, hill profiles are simply illustrations of mountains and hills in profile, placed as appropriate on generally small-scale (broad area of coverage) maps.