Mountains

Mountains are landforms that are characterized by their elevation and slope. A broad description is any landscape feature that is over 600 meters in elevation change with steep slopes. The United Nations International Year of the Mountain (2002) separated mountains into two major categories—mountains extending above 2,500 meters and between 2,500 and 300 meters. Lands that have topographic relief of more than 5 percent within 7 kilometers are also considered mountains.

Mountains are formed in a process known as orogeny of which there are three major activities: island arcs and trenches—along the subduction zones of two oceanic plates; cordilleran-type mountain ranges—along the subduction zones of an ocean and continental plate; and the collisional mountain belts—the convergence and subduction of an arc or another continental plate in ...