What would the earth do without the Mountains?

One of the greatest and most extraordinary features of our planet Earth is the mountain. It has always retained its majesty, regardless of the number of times man has climbed it. God spoke to man on a mountain. The highest range above land is in the Himalayas in the form of Mount Everest and the deepest under an ocean is found in the Pacific Mariana Trench. `Himalaya’ in Sanskrit means `the house of snow’. The Indian sub-continent collided with the mainland of Eurasia and forced the Himalayas up at the point of impact. This was a major continental drift. The sea-beds and the land masses of this world are on huge tectonic plates which are in constant motion over the surface of this oval globe. The Atlantic Ocean is also growing wider at the rate of about a cople of centimetres or three-quarters of an inch, every year. Mountains are formed by the crust of the Earth breaking up into large blocks. Some blocks get to move up while others sink downwards. The Jura Mountains between France and Switzerland were formed by a process of folding just like the crust of the Earth being compressed laterally as a pile of blankets will do when pushed from either side. Rain and wind, cold and heat have weathered these huge rocks and broken them up to smoothen up their contours so that their jagged rock would be rounded off as hills. The craggier and sharper shapes of mountains suggest that they are newer ones. Volcanic action is a process by which matter from within the Earth is forced up to the surface, by heat. Most geologists have classified a mountain as a landform that rises at least a thousand feet or more above its surrounding areas. A mountain range is a series or chain of mountains that are close together. Mountains are quite useful for the well-being of humans as they are a storehouse of water. Many rivers have their source in the glaciers in the mountains. Reservoirs are made and the water is harnessed for the use of people. Volcanoes have played a significant part in the formation of the seas as they have brought water to the surface from deep within the earth and aided in releasing oxygen. You can see this in all rocks and it makes up nearly half their weight. The formation of a volcano begins when the rock melts within the earth, as far down as hundred miles. The melted rock is called magma. It releases gas when it melts and the mix of this magma and gas slowly rises towards the surface. The magma finds a weaker spot in the surface and it bursts out. The main volcanic ranges in this world are concentrated between New Zealand and Indonesia in the Pacific Ocean to Japan and to Alaska. It is known as the `ring of fire’. Almost sixty-two per cent of the active volcanoes in this world are along the plate margins of the Pacific Ocean. Mountains are the water towers of the world. They provide almost sixty percent of all freshwater resources for our planet. At least, half of the world's population depends on the mountain ecosystem services to survive; not only for water but also for food and clean energy. Why do mountains matter in the scheme of things on earth? Major cities such as Rio de Janeiro, New York, Nairobi and Tokyo rely almost exclusively on freshwater from mountains. Mountains are beneficial to man in a variety of ways. For example, mountains retain water. Water from the mountains is also used for cultivation and hydroelectric power generation. In the mountains, paragliding, hang gliding, river rafting and skiing are all popular activities. Mountains provide water for agriculture, food, hydroelectricity, shelter and fresh water. As temperatures decrease with altitude, mountains affect the distribution of snow and ice cover through ecosystems. For example, the slow release of water from snow melting from mountains can provide freshwater throughout the year as it flows into streams and recharges aquifers. Mountains attract around twenty percent of global tourism and they host nearly one-quarter of all terrestrial biodiversity. They are home to many of the foods that come to our tables, such as rice, potatoes, tomatoes and barley. Available records indicate that glaciers in mountain ranges around the world are retreating and disappearing due to climate change. At least six-hundred glaciers have disappeared completely over the past decades; affecting water supplies relied on by billions living downstream. For example, in Pakistan, water originating from the Hindu Kush Himalayas provides eighty percent of irrigation for the Indus Basin, where food is grown for one hundred and eighty million people. Climate change is triggering disasters through avalanches, mud and rock slides which tumble downstream, stripping bare forests, flooding communities and populations. Infectious diseases such as malaria will spread at higher altitudes in the tropics as a result of rising temperatures and climate change, affecting millions of people living in the mountains.