Jet
11/12/25
International Mountain Day
On the 11th December every year it is International Mountain Day. It is day for people to think about how important mountains are to life on Earth and how to protect mountain habitats.
What is a Mountain?
A mountain is a very tall piece of land that is much higher than the land around it. To be a mountain and not a hill it has to be over 600 metres tall and will have much steeper sides. Mountains form over millions and millions of years and are usually created by the Earths plates pushing together or by volcanoes erupting and the lava hardening and building up. Mountains are found on every continent of the world and are often part of mountain ranges, which are longer stretches of mountains grouped together.
Top 10 Mountain Facts
1. Some people think the tallest mountain in the world is Mauna Kea. It is a dormant volcano that is in Hawaii in America. Over half of Mauna Kea is underwater in the Pacific Ocean. It is 10,210 meters tall from the seafloor, but only 4,207 metres of it is above sea level.
2. Many people however only measure mountains from above sea level. According to that criteria Mount Everest would be the tallest! Mount Everest is on the border of Nepal and China and is part of the Himalayas in Asia. It is 8,849 metres tall.
3. The next tallest mountains above sea level are K2 on the borders of Pakistan and China, which is 8,611 metres tall and Kangchenjunga, on the borders of Nepal and India, which is 8,586 metres tall. Kangchenjunga is part of the Himalayas, while K2 is in another mountain range close by.
4. The longest mountain range on Earth is the Mid Ocean Ridge. It is an underwater range of mountains about 40,000 miles long that are in the middle of the worlds oceans. The only part of it you can see about sea level is at Iceland.
5. The Andes Mountains in South America are the longest mountain range above sea level. It is about 5,500 miles long.
6. The highest mountain in the UK is Ben Nevis in Scotland. It is 1,345 meters tall.
7. Because the world’s tectonic plates are moving, some mountains at plate boundaries, like Mount Everest, are still growing taller each year. It is thought Mount Everest grows about 6cm taller every year!
8. The very top of a mountain is called a summit or peak. The higher you go up a mountain the colder it gets. Many mountains have snow at the top all year round. The air is also thinner at the top of a tall mountain, making it harder to breathe.
9. Mountains give us more than half of the fresh water on Earth, with all major rivers starting from them.
10. Mountain habitats are very different depending on how high up you go. The slopes are divided up into very different zones. At the bottom of mountains you might find forests, these then turn into conifer trees the higher up you go. Then even higher up you would find smaller, tougher plants and grasses. This then turns into cold rock, ice and snow when you get really high up.
Photos and illustrations in this blog post are Whizzbots and Public Domain Images.