Mountain ranges of the world

Known forVolcanic peaks in the middle of the Sahara

A volcanic massif rising out of the central Sahara to nearly 3,000 m, high enough to be cooler and slightly wetter than the desert around it. Its rock art records a green Sahara of savanna and lakes as recently as 6,000 years ago, before orbital changes shut the monsoon down.

Settingvolcanic massif · Saharan · relict highland

For the examThe African Humid Period is the mechanism: orbital precession moved the monsoon north, greened the Sahara, and then reversed. It is the standard example of orbital forcing on a human timescale.

Known forRice on one slope, desert on the other

A narrow, high range between the Caspian and the Iranian Plateau, carrying Damavand at 5,610 m. It wrings the Caspian's moisture out on its northern slope — which is why Gilan and Mazandaran are rice country while Tehran on the southern side is semi-desert. The contrast across one ridge is the sharpest rain-shadow example in Asia.

Settingfold range · Hyrcanian forest · sharp rain shadow

For the examThe Hyrcanian forests on the Caspian slope are a World Heritage site and a relict of the Ice Ages — the vegetation half of the rain-shadow story.

Known forEurope's watershed, and its great passes

Raised where Africa collides with Europe. The range is the watershed between the Rhine, the Rhône, the Po and the Danube, and the barrier every north–south route through Europe has to cross by pass or tunnel.

Settingrange · mountain

Known forWhere Russia, China, Mongolia and Kazakhstan meet

Where Russia, Mongolia, Kazakhstan and China meet. The watershed here parts rivers draining north to the Arctic from those draining into Central Asia’s closed basins.

Settingrange · mountain

Known forThe reason the Amazon flows east

The longest continental range on earth, 7,000 km down the Pacific edge, and the reason the Amazon flows east.

Settingrange · permanent ice

Known forThe divide between Indic and Sinic Asia

The range along the Laos–Vietnam border, forming the watershed between the Mekong and the South China Sea and the historic divide between Indic and Sinic South-East Asia. Its remoteness is why several large mammals — the saola among them — were only described by science in the 1990s.

Settingfold range · monsoon rainforest · high endemism

Known forItaly's spine, and where its earthquakes happen

The range running the length of the Italian peninsula, raised as the Adriatic microplate collides with Europe. It is still tectonically active in extension, which is why Italy's destructive earthquakes — L'Aquila 2009, Amatrice 2016 — occur along its spine rather than at its edges.

Settingfold range · seismic · Mediterranean

Known forOlder than the Atlantic that separated it from Scotland

Old, worn and forested — the same orogeny as the Scottish Highlands and the Atlas, before the Atlantic opened.

Settingrange · mountain

Known forThe Sahara's northern wall

The wall that keeps the Sahara out of the Maghreb coast.

Settingrange · mountain

Known forThe arc around the Hungarian plain

A long arc curving around the Pannonian basin, enclosing Transylvania. Europe’s largest remaining tracts of old-growth forest and its densest large-carnivore population are here.

Settingrange · mountain

Known forThe wall between the Black Sea and the Caspian

The wall between the Black Sea and the Caspian, and the conventional Europe–Asia boundary in the south. Mount Elbrus on its crest is the highest point in Europe.

Settingrange · mountain

Known forThe limestone that gave karst its name

The range along the eastern Adriatic, and the type region for karst — the word itself comes from the Kras plateau here. Rain sinks straight through the limestone into caves and underground rivers, so the surface is dry and stony while enormous flows run beneath it.

Settingfold range · karst · Mediterranean to alpine

For the examKarst: dolines, poljes, sinking streams and caves in soluble limestone. Every karst landscape in the world is described in terms first defined here.

Known forThe eroded edge of the southern African plateau

The eroded edge of the Southern African plateau, a basalt escarpment dropping to the coastal lowland. The Orange and Tugela rivers rise on it.

Settingrange · mountain

Known forIt puts the whole Australian interior in rain shadow

It puts the whole Australian interior in rain shadow.

Settingrange · mountain

Known forThe highest range on earth, raised by India colliding with Asia and still rising

The highest range on earth, raised by India colliding with Asia and still rising.

Settingrange · permanent ice

Known forThe most heavily glaciated range outside the poles

The most heavily glaciated range outside the poles, raised on the western syntaxis of the India–Asia collision. It carries K2 and four of the fourteen eight-thousanders, and the Siachen glacier along its Indian flank.

Settingrange · permanent ice

Known forTibet's northern wall, raised far from any margin

One of the longest ranges in Asia, walling the Tibetan Plateau off from the Tarim Basin for 3,000 km. It is a collision range far from any plate margin, raised by the same India–Asia convergence that built the Himalaya 1,500 km to its south — which is the clearest demonstration that collision deforms a continent's whole interior, not just its edge.

Settingcollision range · cold desert · glaciated

For the examIntraplate deformation is the point: the Kunlun, the Tian Shan and the Altai are all uplifted by a collision happening far away.

Known forThe wall between France and Iberia

The wall between Iberia and the rest of Europe, raised as Iberia rotated into France. It has no easy pass, which is why Iberia stayed culturally distinct.

Settingrange · mountain

Known forThe continental divide of North America

The eastern wall of the North American cordillera, and the continental divide runs along it.

Settingrange · mountain

Known forThe spine of the Scandinavian peninsula, worn stubs of an ancient orogeny

The spine of the Scandinavian peninsula, worn stubs of an ancient orogeny. Its western scarp drops straight to the fjords; its gentle eastern slope drains to the Gulf of Bothnia.

Settingrange · mountain

Known forThe two ranges framing the Mexican plateau

The Sierra Madre Occidental and Oriental frame the Mexican plateau east and west, continuing the North American cordillera south. The Occidental hides the Copper Canyon system, deeper than the Grand Canyon.

Settingrange · mountain

Known forThe Sierra Nevada and the Cascades: the western wall of North America

The Sierra Nevada and the Cascades: the western wall of North America. The Sierra’s rain shadow makes the Great Basin a desert; the Cascades carry the arc volcanoes, Rainier to Shasta.

Settingrange · mountain

Known forRaised where two plates grind past each other

Raised along the Alpine Fault where the Pacific and Australian plates grind past each other. The range wrings the rain out of the westerlies, so Westland is temperate rainforest and Canterbury on the lee side is dry plain.

Settingrange · mountain

Known forAnatolia's southern wall, and one gate through it

The range along southern Anatolia, raised where the African and Arabian plates push into Eurasia. It walls the Anatolian Plateau off from the Mediterranean, and the Cilician Gates through it are the one practical route between the two.

Settingfold range · limestone karst · Mediterranean

Known forThe wall between the Tarim and Central Asia

A long east–west range walling off the Tarim basin from Central Asia, uplifted far from any plate margin by the same collision that raised the Himalaya. Its meltwater feeds the oasis cities of the old Silk Road.

Settingrange · mountain

Known forThe conventional boundary between Europe and Asia

The conventional boundary between Europe and Asia, and an old worn range rather than a high one.

Settingrange · mountain

Known forThe northern hemisphere's cold pole

An arc of mountains east of the Lena in northern Siberia, enclosing the basins where the coldest temperatures in the northern hemisphere are recorded — Verkhoyansk and Oymyakon, both around −68°C. Cold air pools in the valleys and cannot escape, which is what makes a basin colder than a summit.

Settingfold range · permafrost · extreme continental

For the examTemperature inversion in an enclosed basin is the mechanism. Oymyakon is the coldest permanently inhabited place on earth.

Known forFolded rock, and the roof over Gulf oil

A fold belt raised where the Arabian plate drives under Iran. Its folds trap much of the Persian Gulf’s oil, and its rain shadow makes the Iranian plateau a desert.

Settingrange · mountain