The New Childrens Encyclopedia

MAKING MOUNTAINS

EARTH

Going up The higher you climb,

the air becomes thinner and the

temperature gets colder. The tree

line marks the cut-off point

beyond which it is too cold for

trees to grow.

TYPES OF MOUNTAIN

Not all mountains are fold

mountains. Some are formed

by eruptions from volcanoes,

and others are made up of

massive blocks of rock pushed

up as Earth’s crust cracks.

Mountains are given their

jagged appearance by heavy

erosion, which strips the rock

away from their sides.

TAKE A PICTURE

The Matterhorn is an easily recognizable

peak in the Alps. It was first climbed in 1865

by an English mountaineer, Edward Whymper.

FAMOUS MOUNTAINEERS

■ Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing

Norgay were the first climbers to reach

the summit of Mount Everest. They did so

on May 29, 1953. Hillary was a New

Zealander, and Norgay was Nepalese.

■ Lino Lacedelli and Achille

Compagnoni were Italian mountaineers

and the first people to conquer K2. They

reached its peak on July 31, 1954.

■ Richard Bass was the first person to

climb the “Seven Summits”—the tallest

mountains on each of the world’s seven

continents. He finished on

April 30, 1985.

MT COOK

(AORAKI)

New Zealand

12,349 ft (3,764 m)

MATTERHORN

(CERVINO)

Italy–Switzerland

14,692 ft (4,478 m)

VESUVIUS

Italy

4,190 ft (1,277 m)

MT FUJI

Japan

12,388 ft (3,776 m)

MONT BLANC

France–Italy

15,770 ft (4,807 m)

MT MCKINLEY

United States

20,322 ft (6,194 m)

K2

(MT GODWIN

AUSTEN)

Pakistan–China

28,251 ft (8,611 m)

KILIMANJARO

Tanzania

19,341 ft (5,895 m)

MT EVEREST

(SAGARMATHA)

Nepal–China

29,029 ft (8,848 m)

ACONCAGUA

Argentina

22,835 ft (6,960 m)

NAMED BY AN EXPLORER
Mount Cook was named by the
explorer Captain James Cook. Its
original, Maori name is Aoraki.

MELTING ICE-CAP

It is estimated that the

ice-caps on Mount

Kilimanjaro will have

melted by 2020.

AN ACTIVE VOLCANO The

last eruption of Mount Fuji was in

1707–1708, when it erupted for 16

days. Some scientists believe that it

may erupt again soon.

A SAVAGE MOUNTAIN One

in four people die when they try

to reach the summit of K2.

OTHER NAMES Mountains often

have different names in different

languages. The Matterhorn is

so-called in English and German,

but in Italian it is called Cervino

and in French, Mont Cervin.