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50-686: The Alpine Route goes through Tateyama (Mt. Tate) in the Hida Mountains with many scenic sites as well as walking trails, including Japan's largest dam, Kurobe Dam . Some stations have hotels around them and are used as bases for mountain climbing or trekking . From the top of the mountain, it is possible to see Mount Fuji on a clear day. The route is composed of seven different transportation services using five different modes: funicular , bus , trolleybus , aerial tramway , and walking. Three transport lines go through tunnels to protect them from snow : one funicular railway and two bus lines. One of

100-654: A hill , typically rising at least 300 metres (980  ft ) above the surrounding land. A few mountains are isolated summits , but most occur in mountain ranges . Mountains are formed through tectonic forces , erosion , or volcanism , which act on time scales of up to tens of millions of years. Once mountain building ceases, mountains are slowly leveled through the action of weathering , through slumping and other forms of mass wasting , as well as through erosion by rivers and glaciers . High elevations on mountains produce colder climates than at sea level at similar latitude. These colder climates strongly affect

150-697: A ridge line. Tateyama is the tallest mountain in the Tateyama Mountain Range (立山連峰, Tateyama-renpō). The Oyama Shrine is located on Oyama Peak. Mount Tate was first climbed by Saeki no Ariyori, during Japan's Asuka period . The area was incorporated into the Chūbu-Sangaku National Park on 4 December 1934. The kanji name for the mountain is 立山, Tateyama in Japanese, which means "standing (立) or outstanding (顕)" and "mountain (山)," respectively. The Toyama Prefectural Government uses

200-428: A biotemperature below 1.5 °C (34.7 °F). Mountain environments are particularly sensitive to anthropogenic climate change and are currently undergoing alterations unprecedented in last 10,000 years. The effect of global warming on mountain regions (relative to lowlands) is still an active area of study. Observational studies show that highlands are warming faster than nearby lowlands, but when compared globally,

250-458: A mountain is roughly equivalent to moving 80 kilometres (45 miles or 0.75° of latitude ) towards the nearest pole. This relationship is only approximate, however, since local factors such as proximity to oceans (such as the Arctic Ocean) can drastically modify the climate. As the altitude increases, the main form of precipitation becomes snow and the winds increase. The effect of

300-466: A mountain, for the purposes of access, is a summit of 2,000 feet (610 m) or higher. In addition, some definitions also include a topographical prominence requirement, such as that the mountain rises 300 metres (984 ft) above the surrounding terrain. At one time, the United States Board on Geographic Names defined a mountain as being 1,000 feet (305 m) or taller, but has abandoned

350-471: A mountain. Elevation, volume, relief, steepness, spacing and continuity have been used as criteria for defining a mountain. In the Oxford English Dictionary a mountain is defined as "a natural elevation of the earth surface rising more or less abruptly from the surrounding level and attaining an altitude which, relatively to the adjacent elevation, is impressive or notable." Whether a landform

400-634: A significant role in religion. There are for example a number of sacred mountains within Greece such as Mount Olympus which was held to be the home of the gods. In Japanese culture, the 3,776.24 m (12,389.2 ft) volcano of Mount Fuji is also held to be sacred with tens of thousands of Japanese ascending it each year. Mount Kailash , in the Tibet Autonomous Region of China, is considered to be sacred in four religions: Hinduism, Bon , Buddhism, and Jainism . In Ireland, pilgrimages are made up

450-467: A whole, 24% of the Earth's land mass is mountainous. There are three main types of mountains: volcanic , fold , and block . All three types are formed from plate tectonics : when portions of the Earth's crust move, crumple, and dive. Compressional forces, isostatic uplift and intrusion of igneous matter forces surface rock upward, creating a landform higher than the surrounding features. The height of

500-452: Is El Alto , Bolivia, at 4,150 metres (13,620 ft), which has a highly diverse service and manufacturing economy and a population of nearly 1 million. Traditional mountain societies rely on agriculture, with higher risk of crop failure than at lower elevations. Minerals often occur in mountains, with mining being an important component of the economics of some mountain-based societies. More recently, tourism has become more important to

550-515: Is 8,850 m (29,035 ft) above mean sea level. The highest known mountain on any planet in the Solar System is Olympus Mons on Mars at 21,171 m (69,459 ft). The tallest mountain including submarine terrain is Mauna Kea in Hawaii from its underwater base at 9,330 m (30,610 ft) and some scientists consider it to be the tallest on earth. There is no universally accepted definition of

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600-488: Is Oyama Shrine. This peak is better known but it is not the highest point of the mountain (Onanjiyama). Located on Murodo Plateau from Murodō Station is a shopping area and onsen bath. The onsen on Tateyama is famously known for its use of sulfur spring water for the bath. There are also several hiking and walking paths that guide them through Hell's Valley (Jigokudani) and the other valleys. As with many volcanic areas in Japan of

650-478: Is a poor conductor of heat, so a parcel of air will rise and fall without exchanging heat. This is known as an adiabatic process , which has a characteristic pressure-temperature dependence. As the pressure gets lower, the temperature decreases. The rate of decrease of temperature with elevation is known as the adiabatic lapse rate , which is approximately 9.8 °C per kilometre (or 5.4 °F (3.0 °C) per 1000 feet) of altitude. The presence of water in

700-419: Is a set of outdoor activities that involves ascending mountains . Mountaineering-related activities include traditional outdoor climbing , skiing , and traversing via ferratas that have become sports in their own right. Indoor climbing , sport climbing , and bouldering are also considered variants of mountaineering by some, but are part of a wide group of mountain sports . Mountains often play

750-541: Is called a mountain may depend on local usage. John Whittow's Dictionary of Physical Geography states "Some authorities regard eminences above 600 metres (1,969 ft) as mountains, those below being referred to as hills." In the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland, a mountain is usually defined as any summit at least 2,000 feet (610 m) high, which accords with the official UK government's definition that

800-530: Is located in southeastern Toyama Prefecture. At the base of the mountain is the town of Tateyama which is accessible by train from the prefecture's capital city, Toyama . Public transportation takes climbers and tourists as far as the Murodo Plateau Station at an elevation of 2,450 m (8,038 ft), where individuals may climb to the peak on foot. This location allows for the formation of snow and its accumulation, forming glaciers . These are

850-556: Is not enough oxygen to support human life. This is sometimes referred to as the " death zone ". The summits of Mount Everest and K2 are in the death zone. Mountains are generally less preferable for human habitation than lowlands, because of harsh weather and little level ground suitable for agriculture . While 7% of the land area of Earth is above 2,500 metres (8,200 ft), only 140 million people live above that altitude and only 20-30 million people above 3,000 metres (9,800 ft) elevation. About half of mountain dwellers live in

900-457: Is the highest mountain on Earth, at 8,848 metres (29,029 ft). There are at least 100 mountains with heights of over 7,200 metres (23,622 ft) above sea level, all of which are located in central and southern Asia. The highest mountains above sea level are generally not the highest above the surrounding terrain. There is no precise definition of surrounding base, but Denali , Mount Kilimanjaro and Nanga Parbat are possible candidates for

950-525: Is the largest mountain on Earth in terms of base area (about 2,000 sq mi or 5,200 km ) and volume (about 18,000 cu mi or 75,000 km ). Mount Kilimanjaro is the largest non-shield volcano in terms of both base area (245 sq mi or 635 km ) and volume (1,150 cu mi or 4,793 km ). Mount Logan is the largest non-volcanic mountain in base area (120 sq mi or 311 km ). The highest mountains above sea level are also not those with peaks farthest from

1000-522: The Andes , Central Asia, and Africa. With limited access to infrastructure, only a handful of human communities exist above 4,000 metres (13,000 ft) of elevation. Many are small and have heavily specialized economies, often relying on industries such as agriculture, mining, and tourism. An example of such a specialized town is La Rinconada, Peru , a gold-mining town and the highest elevation human habitation at 5,100 metres (16,700 ft). A counterexample

1050-645: The Basin and Range Province of Western North America. These areas often occur when the regional stress is extensional and the crust is thinned. During and following uplift, mountains are subjected to the agents of erosion (water, wind, ice, and gravity) which gradually wear the uplifted area down. Erosion causes the surface of mountains to be younger than the rocks that form the mountains themselves. Glacial processes produce characteristic landforms, such as pyramidal peaks , knife-edge arêtes , and bowl-shaped cirques that can contain lakes. Plateau mountains, such as

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1100-463: The Catskills , are formed from the erosion of an uplifted plateau. Climate in the mountains becomes colder at high elevations , due to an interaction between radiation and convection. Sunlight in the visible spectrum hits the ground and heats it. The ground then heats the air at the surface. If radiation were the only way to transfer heat from the ground to space, the greenhouse effect of gases in

1150-461: The ecosystems of mountains: different elevations have different plants and animals. Because of the less hospitable terrain and climate, mountains tend to be used less for agriculture and more for resource extraction, such as mining and logging , along with recreation, such as mountain climbing and skiing . The highest mountain on Earth is Mount Everest in the Himalayas of Asia , whose summit

1200-613: The 952 metres (3,123 ft) Mount Brandon by Irish Catholics . The Himalayan peak of Nanda Devi is associated with the Hindu goddesses Nanda and Sunanda; it has been off-limits to climbers since 1983. Mount Ararat is a sacred mountain, as it is believed to be the landing place of Noah's Ark . In Europe and especially in the Alps , summit crosses are often erected on the tops of prominent mountains. Heights of mountains are typically measured above sea level . Using this metric, Mount Everest

1250-452: The US. Fold mountains occur when two plates collide: shortening occurs along thrust faults and the crust is overthickened. Since the less dense continental crust "floats" on the denser mantle rocks beneath, the weight of any crustal material forced upward to form hills, plateaus or mountains must be balanced by the buoyancy force of a much greater volume forced downward into the mantle. Thus

1300-553: The atmosphere complicates the process of convection. Water vapor contains latent heat of vaporization . As air rises and cools, it eventually becomes saturated and cannot hold its quantity of water vapor. The water vapor condenses to form clouds and releases heat, which changes the lapse rate from the dry adiabatic lapse rate to the moist adiabatic lapse rate (5.5 °C per kilometre or 3 °F (1.7 °C) per 1000 feet) The actual lapse rate can vary by altitude and by location. Therefore, moving up 100 m (330 ft) on

1350-429: The atmosphere would keep the ground at roughly 333 K (60 °C; 140 °F), and the temperature would decay exponentially with height. However, when air is hot, it tends to expand, which lowers its density. Thus, hot air tends to rise and transfer heat upward. This is the process of convection . Convection comes to equilibrium when a parcel of air at a given altitude has the same density as its surroundings. Air

1400-428: The bus lines is the last trolleybus line in Japan, and the other was converted to all-electric buses in 2018. The bus lines are used because they do not exhaust fumes in the tunnels. During summer, shuttle buses between Toyama and Murodō are also available. The Tateyama Kurobe Kankō ( 立山黒部貫光 ) operates most lines in the route. Its official abbreviation is TKK . The word kankō (貫光) was coined by Muneyoshi Saeki,

1450-459: The climate on the ecology at an elevation can be largely captured through a combination of amount of precipitation, and the biotemperature , as described by Leslie Holdridge in 1947. Biotemperature is the mean temperature; all temperatures below 0 °C (32 °F) are considered to be 0 °C. When the temperature is below 0 °C, plants are dormant, so the exact temperature is unimportant. The peaks of mountains with permanent snow can have

1500-534: The conditions above and below a particular zone will be inhospitable and thus constrain their movements or dispersal . These isolated ecological systems are known as sky islands . Altitudinal zones tend to follow a typical pattern. At the highest elevations, trees cannot grow, and whatever life may be present will be of the alpine type, resembling tundra . Just below the tree line , one may find subalpine forests of needleleaf trees, which can withstand cold, dry conditions. Below that, montane forests grow. In

1550-469: The continental crust is normally much thicker under mountains, compared to lower lying areas. Rock can fold either symmetrically or asymmetrically. The upfolds are anticlines and the downfolds are synclines : in asymmetric folding there may also be recumbent and overturned folds. The Balkan Mountains and the Jura Mountains are examples of fold mountains. Block mountains are caused by faults in

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1600-503: The crust: a plane where rocks have moved past each other. When rocks on one side of a fault rise relative to the other, it can form a mountain. The uplifted blocks are block mountains or horsts . The intervening dropped blocks are termed graben : these can be small or form extensive rift valley systems. This kind of landscape can be seen in East Africa , the Vosges and Rhine valley, and

1650-535: The definition since the 1970s. Any similar landform lower than this height was considered a hill. However, today, the United States Geological Survey concludes that these terms do not have technical definitions in the US. The UN Environmental Programme 's definition of "mountainous environment" includes any of the following: Using these definitions, mountains cover 33% of Eurasia, 19% of South America, 24% of North America, and 14% of Africa. As

1700-460: The dry season and in semiarid areas such as in central Asia. Alpine ecosystems can be particularly climatically sensitive. Many mid-latitude mountains act as cold climate refugia, with the ecosystems occupying small environmental niches. As well as the direct influence that the change in climate can have on an ecosystem, there is also the indirect one on the soils from changes in stability and soil development. The colder climate on mountains affects

1750-523: The economies of mountain communities, with developments focused around attractions such as national parks and ski resorts . Approximately 80% of mountain people live below the poverty line. Most of the world's rivers are fed from mountain sources, with snow acting as a storage mechanism for downstream users. More than half of humanity depends on mountains for water. In geopolitics , mountains are often seen as natural boundaries between polities. Mountaineering , mountain climbing, or alpinism

1800-428: The effect disappears. Precipitation in highland areas is not increasing as quickly as in lowland areas. Climate modeling give mixed signals about whether a particular highland area will have increased or decreased precipitation. Climate change has started to affect the physical and ecological systems of mountains. In recent decades mountain ice caps and glaciers have experienced accelerating ice loss. The melting of

1850-433: The feature makes it either a hill or, if higher and steeper, a mountain. Major mountains tend to occur in long linear arcs, indicating tectonic plate boundaries and activity. Volcanoes are formed when a plate is pushed below another plate , or at a mid-ocean ridge or hotspot . At a depth of around 100 km (60 mi), melting occurs in rock above the slab (due to the addition of water), and forms magma that reaches

1900-508: The first president of the company. According to him, kan ( 貫 ) means "time-space", and kō ( 光 ) means "outer space", while kan (貫) also (normally) means "to penetrate", as in "to penetrate Tateyama Mountains" and kō (normally) means "light". The word is a homophone to kankō (観光; "sightseeing"), possibly intentionally. [REDACTED] ‹The template Manual is being considered for merging .›   The Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route involves many sights. Located by Oyama peak

1950-498: The glaciers, permafrost and snow has caused underlying surfaces to become increasingly unstable. Landslip hazards have increased in both number and magnitude due to climate change. Patterns of river discharge will also be significantly affected by climate change, which in turn will have significant impacts on communities that rely on water fed from alpine sources. Nearly half of mountain areas provide essential or supportive water resources for mainly urban populations, in particular during

2000-584: The lodges or hotels along the way. Mount Tate Mount Tate ( 立山 , Tate-yama , IPA: [tateꜜjama] ) , also known as Tateyama, is a mountain located in the southeastern area of Toyama Prefecture , Japan . It is one of the tallest mountains in the Hida Mountains at 3,015 m (9,892 ft) and one of Japan's Three Holy Mountains ( 三霊山 , Sanreizan ) along with Mount Fuji and Mount Haku . Tateyama consists of three peaks: Ōnanjiyama (大汝山, 3,015 m), Oyama (雄山, 3,003 m), and Fuji-no-Oritate, (富士ノ折立, 2,999m) which form

2050-619: The mountain is a slightly hidden walking path. Midagahara is accessible from Tateyama Station via the Tateyama Cable Car (7 minutes) followed by Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route bus (about 40 minutes) that goes in the direction of Murodō Station . Shōmyō Falls (the tallest waterfall in Japan) is visible across the valley while traveling along the main road from Tateyama Station to the Murodo Plateau. The section between Kurobe Dam and Ōgisawa

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2100-424: The name Mount Tateyama as an official translation of the Japanese mountain. The mountain is primarily composed of granite and gneiss . However, located along the ridge and plateau , about 2 km (1.2 mi) west of the summit, there is a small andesite - dacite stratovolcano . This volcano has an elevation of 2,621 m (8,599 ft) and has minor eruptions , the latest occurring in 1961. Tateyama

2150-498: The only glaciers identified in Japan so far. Mount Tate is the source of two rivers , both flowing to the Sea of Japan . Mountain A mountain is an elevated portion of the Earth's crust , generally with steep sides that show significant exposed bedrock . Although definitions vary, a mountain may differ from a plateau in having a limited summit area, and is usually higher than

2200-527: The plants and animals residing on mountains. A particular set of plants and animals tend to be adapted to a relatively narrow range of climate. Thus, ecosystems tend to lie along elevation bands of roughly constant climate. This is called altitudinal zonation . In regions with dry climates, the tendency of mountains to have higher precipitation as well as lower temperatures also provides for varying conditions, which enhances zonation. Some plants and animals found in altitudinal zones tend to become isolated since

2250-510: The same name, people cannot walk within the sulfur valley due to gas-related safety concerns. From April 15 to mid-June, there are snow walls named Yukino-ōtani, which tower anywhere from 15 to 20 meters high (roughly 50 to 65 feet). They flank the road leading to Murodo Station. There are many charter services from Taipei , Incheon and Thailand during the high season to reach Murodo at this time. From Murodo, visitors can also reach Kurobe Dam , which stands at 186 meters (610 feet), making it

2300-456: The surface. When the magma reaches the surface, it often builds a volcanic mountain, such as a shield volcano or a stratovolcano . Examples of volcanoes include Mount Fuji in Japan and Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines. The magma does not have to reach the surface in order to create a mountain: magma that solidifies below ground can still form dome mountains , such as Navajo Mountain in

2350-617: The tallest dam in Japan. From Murodō Station, visitors should take the Tateyama Tunnel Trolleybus (10 minutes), followed by the Tateyama Ropeway (7 minutes), and finally the Kurobe Cable Car (5 minutes). From the last stop, a 15-minute walk will take visitors to the dam. Midagahara is a flat walking area filled with flowing plains interrupted by blue ponds. Near the bus stop that returns visitors to Bijodaira back down

2400-470: The tallest mountain on land by this measure. The bases of mountain islands are below sea level, and given this consideration Mauna Kea (4,207 m (13,802 ft) above sea level) is the world's tallest mountain and volcano, rising about 10,203 m (33,474 ft) from the Pacific Ocean floor. The highest mountains are not generally the most voluminous. Mauna Loa (4,169 m or 13,678 ft)

2450-473: The temperate portions of the earth, those forests tend to be needleleaf trees, while in the tropics, they can be broadleaf trees growing in a rainforest . The highest known permanently tolerable altitude is at 5,950 metres (19,520 ft). At very high altitudes, the decreasing atmospheric pressure means that less oxygen is available for breathing, and there is less protection against solar radiation ( UV ). Above 8,000 metres (26,000 ft) elevation, there

2500-496: Was originally made for construction of the dam, while the section between Tateyama and Kurobeko was for tourists from the beginning. Today, the entire route serves exclusively as a scenic sightseeing journey through the Japanese Alps, popular with tourists. Most travelers complete the route in one direction, either east to west or vice versa. It can be done in a single day or at a more relaxed pace, with an overnight stay at one of

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