• Question: how are mountains important?

    Asked by anon-191454 to Kathryn, Graeme, Chris, Anne, Agnes, Adam on 9 Nov 2018.
    • Photo: Anne Green

      Anne Green answered on 9 Nov 2018:

      Important for what? Walking or climbing up them is fun.

    • Photo: Agnes Wojtusiak

      Agnes Wojtusiak answered on 11 Nov 2018:

      Lots of reasons! I’ll try to list a few…
      .
      1. That’s where rivers are born.
      2. There are lots of one-of-a-kind plants and animals that live in mountains and nowhere else! These include mountain gorillas and snow leopards, which are sadly both endangered 🙁
      3. They’re home to many people too, often influencing cultures and traditions.
      4. They are beautiful! Like Anne said, perfect for hikes and climbing! 🙂
      .
      The WWF have a whole page dedicated to explaining why mountains are important: https://www.wwf.org.uk/where-we-work/habitats/mountainous-environments – it might be worth having a read, we definitely need to protect them!

    • Photo: Kathryn

      Kathryn answered on 13 Nov 2018:

      They form either as extinct volcanos or when two plates come together and the crust is pushed upwards. This is why Everest is getting higher.

      They are a result of plate tectonics and then the environmental roles and required to produce the environments we have on earth today.

    • Photo: Adam McGuinness

      Adam McGuinness answered on 13 Nov 2018:

      Nice one Agnes!

    • Photo: Graeme Poole

      Graeme Poole answered on 13 Nov 2018:

      Mountains also help combat climate change – weathering/erosion of the silicate minerals in the rocks takes carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere to form new minerals, like calcium carbonate.

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