There are three types of mountains- Fold Mountains, Block Mountains and the Volcanic Mountains.

Fold Mountains - Fold mountains are formed due to folding of the rocks. Fold Mountains are formed when two tectonic plates move towards each other leading to the folding of the

layers of the Earth

Example The Himalayas, the Alps

Block mountains - Block mountains are formed due to faulting, Block Mountains are formed when the two tectonic plates move away from each other causing cracks on the surface of

the Earth. Block Mountains are created when large areas are broken and displaced vertically. The uplifted blocks are termed as horsts and the lowered blocks are called graben.

Example: The Rhine valley and the Vosges mountain in Europe are examples of such mountain systems.

Mountain Metres Range Location & Features

Mount Everest 8,848 Himalayas Nepal China Border

K2 8,611 Karakoram India

Kangchenjunga 8,586 Himalayas Nepal/India Border

Lhotse 8,516 Himalayas Nepal/China

Makalu 8,485 Himalayas Nepal/China

Cho Oyu 8,201 Himalayas Nepal/China

Dhaulagiri 8,167 Himalayas Nepal

Manaslu 8,163 Himalayas Nepal

Nanga Parbat 8,126 Himalayas India

Annapurna 8,091 Himalayas Nepal

Longest Mountain Ranges

The Andes – 7,000 km The Rockies – 4,830 km

The Great Dividing Range – 3,500 km The Transantarctic Mountains – 3,500 km

The Ural Mountains – 2,500 km The Atlas Mountains – 2,500 km

The Appalachian Mountains – 2,414 km The Himalayas – 2,400 km

The Altai Mountains – 2,000 km The Western Ghats – 1,600 km

The Alps – 1,200 km Drakensberg – 1,125 km

The Aravalli Range – 800 km

The Andes

The Andes is the longest continental mountain range in the world.

The Andes is the world’s highest mountain range outside of Asia with an average height of 4000 m.

Highest peak is Mount Aconcagua (6,962 m) (volcanic origin, but now it’s dormant), which is also the highest peak of South American continent

World’s highest volcanoes are in the Andes. Ojos del Salado (6,893 m) (active volcano) on the Chile-Argentina border is the highest volcano on earth.

Alaska Range - The highest point in North America, Mt. McKinley, now called Denali is here. It measures 6,194 m

Appalachian Mountains - The highest point is Mt. Mitchell at 2,037 m

Cascade Range – Located in western North America. It is part of the Pacific Ocean’s Ring of Fire. It is made up of a band of thousands of very small, short-

lived volcanoes. Some volcanoes are very large.

Example - Mount St. Helens.

Rocky Mountain range forms a part of the American Cordillera

Brooks Range in Alaska - Highest point: Mt. Isto, 9,060 ft. (2,760 m)

Main belt of the Rocky Mountains – The highest point in the Rockies is Mt. Elbert, 4,399 meters

Columbia Mountains lie parallel to the Rocky Mountains

Sierra Nevada - The highest point is Mt. Whitney at 4,418 meters

In Mexico, the Cordillera continues through the Sierra Madre Occidental and the Sierra Madre Oriental.

South Cordillera The Cordillera continues through the mountain ranges of Central America in Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama,

and becomes the Andes Mountains of South America.

The Andes with their parallel chains continue to the very tip of South America at Tierra del Fuego.

Longest Mountain Ranges

The Andes – 7,000 km The Rockies – 4,830 km

The Great Dividing Range – 3,500 km The Transantarctic Mountains – 3,500 km

The Ural Mountains – 2,500 km The Atlas Mountains – 2,500 km

The Appalachian Mountains – 2,414 km The Himalayas – 2,400 km

The Altai Mountains – 2,000 km The Western Ghats – 1,600 km

The Alps – 1,200 km Drakensberg – 1,125 km

The Aravalli Range – 800 km

The Great Dividing Range

The Great Dividing Range, or the Eastern Highlands, is Australia’s most substantial mountain. It is also known as the Australian Alps and was formed

due to rifting. It runs roughly parallel to the East Coast of Australia and stretches more than 3,500 kilometres.

Transantarctic Mountains of Antarctica

Highest point: Mount Kirkpatrick, Length: 3,500 km

Overall Mount Vinson is the highest peak in Antarctica, at 4,892 metres

The Ural Mountains

Mountain range that runs approximately from north to south through western Russia, from the coast of the Arctic Ocean to the Ural River and northwestern

Kazakhstan.

Their eastern side is usually considered the natural boundary between Europe and Asia. Since the 18th century, the mountains have been a major mineral

base of Russia.

Atlas Mountains

Mountain range across the north-western stretch of Africa extending about 2,500 km (1,600 mi) through Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia.

The highest peak is Toubkal (4,165 metres) in southwestern Morocco. These mountains were formed when Africa and Europe collided.

The Himalayas

The Himalayan range is home to the planet’s highest peaks, including the highest, Mount Everest.

They range from Nanga Parbat to Namcha Barwa

They are among the youngest mountain ranges on the planet and consist mostly of uplifted sedimentary and metamorphic rock.

They were formed as a result of a continental collision between the Indo-Australian Plate and the Eurasian Plate. The Arakan Yoma highlands in Myanmar and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in the Bay of Bengal were also formed as

a result of this collision.

The Alps

The Alps are the highest and most extensive mountain range system that lies entirely in Europe, and stretch approximately 1,200 km (750 mi) across eight

Alpine countries (from west to east): France, Switzerland, Monaco, Italy, Liechtenstein, Austria, Germany, and Slovenia.

The mountains were formed as the African and Eurasian tectonic plates collided.

Extreme folding caused by the event resulted in marine sedimentary rocks rising by thrusting and folding into high mountain peaks such as Mont Blanc (4,810 m)

(French–Italian border).

The Alpine region area contains about a hundred peaks higher than 4,000 m, known as the four-thousanders.

The highest known mountain on any planet in the Solar System is Olympus Mons on Mars (~26 km in elevation).

It is also the highest active volcano in the Solar System.

The Arakan Mountains, also known as the Rakhine Mountains, are a mountain range in western Myanmar, between the coast of Rakhine State and the Central

Myanmar Basin, in which flows the Irrawaddy River.

The Karakoram range spanning the borders of China, India, and Pakistan, with the northwest extremity of the range extending to Afghanistan and Tajikistan.

It begins in the Wakhan Corridor (Afghanistan) in the west and encompasses the majority of Gilgit-Baltistan

(Pakistan) and extends into Ladakh (India) and the disputed Aksai Chin region controlled by China. It is

the second highest mountain range in the world

The Karakoram has eighteen summits over 7,500 m (24,600 ft) height, with four of them exceeding 8,000

m (26,000 ft): K2, the second highest peak in the world at 8,611 m (28,251 ft), Gasherbrum I, Broad

Peak and Gasherbrum II.

Hindu Kush mountain range

Highest point - Tirich Mir (Pakistan) - 7,708 metres

800-kilometre-long mountain range that stretches through Afghanistan, from itscentre to Northern Pakistan and into Tajikistan.

The Pamir mountain area centres on the nodal orogenic uplift known as the Pamir Knot, from which several south-central Asian mountain ranges radiate,

including the Hindu Kush, the Karakoram Range, the Kunlun Mountains, and the Tien Shan. Most of the Pamirs lie within Tajikistan, but the fringes penetrate

Afghanistan, China, and Kyrgyzstan.

Altai mountain range

These are a mountain range in Central and East Asia, where Russia, China, Mongolia, and Kazakhstan come together.

The Tian Shan is a large system of mountain ranges located in Central Asia. The highest peak in the Tian Shan is Jengish Chokusu, at 7,439 metres.

It mainly straddles the border between China and Kyrgyzstan.

Kunlun Mountains

Kunlun Mountains extend west to east some 1,250 miles (2,000 km), from the Pamirs in Tajikistan in the west to the Kunlun Pass.

Altai Mountains - Complex mountain system of Central Asia extending approximately 2,000 km in a southeast-northwest direction from the Gobi (Desert) to the West Siberian Plain, through China, Mongolia, Russia, and

Kazakhstan.

The Caucasus Mountains are a mountain system at the intersection of Europe and Asia. Stretching between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea and is home to

Mount Elbrus, the highest peak in Europe.

The Zagros Mountains are a long mountain range in Iran, northern Iraq and southeastern Turkey. This mountain range has a total length of 1,600 km. The

highest point is Mount Dena, at 4,409 metres (14,465 ft).

Taurus Mountains

The Taurus Mountains are a mountain complex in southern Turkey, separating the Mediterranean coastal region from the central Anatolian Plateau. The

system extends along a curve from Lake Eğirdir in the west to the upper reaches of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers in the east. It is a part of the Alpide belt in

Eurasia.

Serra do Mar is a 1,500 km long system of mountain ranges and escarpments in Southeastern Brazil.

The Chersky Range is a chain of mountains in northeastern Siberia. The range lies on the boundary between the Eurasian and North American tectonic plates. The Chersky mountains, along with the neighboring Verkhoyansk Range, have a

moderating effect on the climate of Siberia.

The Carpathian Mountains are a range of mountains forming an arc throughout

Central and Eastern Europe.

Roughly 1,500 km long, it is the 3rd

longest European mountain range after the Urals at 2,500 km and the

Scandinavian Mountains at 1,700 km. The range stretches from the far eastern

Czech Republic (3%) in the northwest through Slovakia (17%), Poland (10%),

Hungary (4%) and Ukraine (10%) Serbia (5%) and Romania (50%) in the southeast

The Scandinavian Mountains is a mountain range that runs through the

Scandinavian Peninsula.

To the north they form the border between Norway and Sweden,

reaching 2,000 metres (6,600 ft) high at the Arctic Circle. The mountain range touches northwesternmost

Finland.

The Bukit Barisan or the BarisanMountains are a mountain range on

the western side of Sumatra, Indonesia, covering nearly 1,700 km from the north to the south of the

island.

The Bukit Barisan range consists primarily of volcanoes shrouded in

dense jungle cover, including Sumatran tropical pine forests on the

higher slopes.

The Hengduan Mountains are a group of mountain ranges in southwest China that connect the southeast portions of the Tibetan Plateau with the Yunnan–

Guizhou Plateau.

Drakensberg, the main mountain range of Southern Africa.