Complex volcano

A complex volcano, also called a compound volcano, is a volcano with more than one characteristic. They form because changes of their eruptive characteristics or the place of multiple vents in an area. Stratovolcanoes can form complex volcanoes, because they may overlap one more from explosive eruptions, lava flows, pyroclastic flows and by frequent eruptions, to make manifold summits and vents. Stratovolcanoes could also form a big caldera that gets filled in by numerous small cinder cones, lava domes and craters may also expand on the caldera's rim.

Complex volcanoes are varied landforms. In most cases, they happen because of changes also in eruptive habit or in position of the principal vent area. A stratovolcano may form a huge explosion crater that later becomes filled by a lava dome, or several new cones and craters may develop on a caldera's rim. One stratovolcano cone may overlap one more and have multiple summits.

Cinder cone

Cinder cone volcanoes are the most common type of volcanoes. They are vertical sided cones of basaltic remains and are lesser and simpler than composite volcanoes. Streaming gases take liquid lava blobs into the atmosphere that drop back to earth around a single give vent to form the cone. The volcano forms when ash cinders and bombs pile up about the vent to shape a circular or oval cone.

Many cinder cones contain a bowl-shaped crater at the top. Lava flows are frequently erupted by cinder cones, moreover through a breach on one side of the hollow or from a vent situated on a flank. If the crater is completely breached, the remaining walls form an amphitheatre or horseshoe shape around the vent. Lava hardly ever issues from the top (apart from as a fountain) because the loose, uncemented cinders are too weak to hold up the pressure exerted by molten rock as it rises in the direction of the surface through the central vent.

Caldera

Long Valley Caldera a 15- by 30-km oval-shaped depression situated 20 km south of Mono Lake the length of the east side of the Sierra Nevada in east-central California. This area of eastern California has shaped numerous volcanic eruptions in excess of the past 3 million years, including the massive caldera-forming eruption 760,000 years ago. The majority recent eruption occurred immediately 250 years ago in Mono Lake at the north end of Mono-Inyo Craters volcanic chain.

Calderas are found at the tops of volcanoes, where the unique peak has collapsed into an unfilled chamber beneath. The basin, many times better than the original volcanic vent, may be flooded, producing a crater lake, or the flat floor may have a number of small volcanic cones, produced by volcanic activity behind the collapse.

Climate and Mountains

The major differences in climate of mountains are temperature and moisture. Mountains are inclined to have much wetter climates than the surrounding flat land. They receive more rainfall than low lying areas since the temperature on top of mountains is inferior to the temperature at sea level. That is why you often see snow on the top of mountains all year surrounding. The superior the place is above sea level the colder it will be.

Climates change quickly on mountains, becoming colder the higher the altitude gets. This happens since as altitude increases, air becomes thinner and is less able to soak up and keep heat. The cooler the temperature the less evaporation there is meaning so as to there is more moisture in the air.

Because of the fast changes in altitude and temperature along a mountain slope, multiple ecological zones are “stacked” ahead one another sometimes ranging from dense tropical jungles to glacial ice inside a few kilometers.

Mountains around the world

Asia

Asia is the major continent in both size and population covering approximately 1/3 of the world's land area and it has about 3/5 of the world's people. It has a number of the world's highest mountains, longest rivers, largest deserts, plains, and plateaus, and thickest forests and jungles.

Nepal

Mount Everest is the uppermost mountain on the earth (measuring from sea level). It rises 8,848 meters over the sea, on the border between Nepal and China.

Japan: Mount Fuji, (uppermost mountain in Japan) 3,776ms
It is a remote volcano, located only 50 miles southwest from Tokyo.

Europe

Britain: Ben Nevis, Scotland 1,343ms

Ben Nevis - Peak Mountain in Great Britain
Snowdon - top mountain in Wales
Scafell Pike - Main Mountain in England (978 meters ~ 3208 feet far above the ground)
Kinder Scout - uppermost peak in the Peak District

Greece: Mount Olympus, Athens 2,917ms
Mount Olympus is the uppermost mountain in Greece.

Turkey: Mount Ararat, 5,165ms
Mount Ararat is a snow-capped volcanic cone, situated in extreme northeast Turkey.

Africa

Africa is the second major continent in area covering about 1/5 of the world's land area and it has the third largest population.
Volcanic activity created most of Africa's highest mountains. The 2 tallest peaks are Mt. Kilimanjaro at 19,340 ft. and Mt. Kenya on 17,058 ft. They are together extinct volcanoes. Even though both mountains go up near to the equator, they have glaciers and are enclosed with snow most of the year.

Tanzania: Mount Kilimanjaro, 5,895ms
The highest mountain in Africa, situated in Northeast Tanzania, near the Kenya border.

Kenya: Mount Kenya, 5,199ms
The second uppermost mountain in Africa. Like Mount Kilimanjaro, it is an extinct volcano.

Australia:

Mt Kosciuszko - Australia, 2228 metres
The highest mountain in Australia, positioned in the extreme southeast bend of the continent. Placed between Melbourne and Sydney in the Australian Alps

South America

Argentina: Aconcagua in Andes 6,960ms
Aconcagua is the highest mountain in the Western hemisphere, located in western Argentina, close to the Chile border.

The World's Tallest Mountain

At 29,029ft (8,848m) Everest is the uppermost mountain in the world, but measured from top to bottom, under sea level, Mauna Kea beats Everest by 4436 ft. (over 3/4 of a mile).

Although Mount Everest, at 29,029 feet high, is often called the tallest mountain; Mauna Kea, an inactive volcano on the island of Hawaii is in fact taller. Only 13,796 feet of Mauna Kea stands on top of sea level, however, if you measure it from its base, which is under sea level, it is 33,465 feet. If you stand Mauna Kea and Mount Everest next to every other, Mount Kea would be 4400 feet taller

Plateau Mountains

Plateau Mountains take place in series when the folds of a mountain chain pass suddenly into the horizontal stratum of a basalt plateau that is mainly denuded of trees and eroded. These topographic forms are, however, really Pseudo Mountains that are produced by the erosion of a plateau

Plateau Mountain Ecological Reserve, at the southern lean of Kananaskis Country, is similar to nowhere else in Alberta. Its broad wind-swept peak supports a remarkable diversity of wildflowers and geological features, with dramatic vistas across the mountains and foothills.

Status

* Plateau Mountain was recognized as an Ecological Reserve in December 1991.

* Ecological Reserves are 'representative or special usual landscapes and features of the region, which are secluded as examples of functioning ecosystems, as gene pools for research, and for education and heritage approval purposes.

* Ecological Reserves give limited opportunities for outdoor recreation and environmental tourism, where they are well-matched with the defense objective.

Volcanic Mountains

Volcanic Mountains are shaped when molten rock or magma deep inside the earth, erupts, and loads upon the surface. Examples of Volcanic Mountains comprise Mount St. Helens in North America and Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines.

Volcano

A volcano is a physical landform (usually a mountain) where magma (rock of the earth's interior made molten or liquid by high pressure and temperature) erupts through the outside of the planet.

In simple terms a volcano is a mountain that opens downward to a pool of molten rock underneath the surface of the earth. It is a gap in the Earth from which molten rock (magma) and gas explode.

As pressure in the molten rock builds up it wants to escape somewhere. So it forces its way up “fissures” which are narrow cracks in the earths crust. Once the magma erupts through the earth’s surface it is called lava.

Lava

Lava is fluid rock (magma) that flows out of a volcano. Fresh lava ranges from 1,300° to 2,200° F (700° to 1,200° C) in temperature and glows red hot to white burning as it flows.

Magma

Magma is liquid rock within a volcano.

Fault-Block Mountains and Valleys

1 A fault is a break in a rock. We usually associate faults with earthquakes. But did you know that faults can also form mountains?

2 Mountains are created by processes called orogeny. This process typically takes place close to plate boundaries. Actions at these boundaries place strain and tension on the crustal rocks. They are distorted by folding and faulting. Mountains are classified by the method they are formed.

3 Tensions at plate limits often shape faults in the earth's crust. There are dissimilar types of faults. Usual faults are caused by horizontal tension. Part of the crust is uplifted, and part of it moves down. This happens at the line where the rock is out of order, called the fault plane. In an area where there are many faults, mountain ranges can appearance. These mountains are called fault-block Mountains.

4 Fault-block mountains frequently occur where plates are moving apart. The movement causes the rocks to be prolonged. Temperatures are low and the rocks are fragile. In its place of folding, they break into big blocks.

5 Faulting causes a number of sections of the rock to be uplifted. These are called horsts. A horst is a division of the earth's crust that lies between two faults. It is higher than the nearby land.