Mountains appear on every continent, including ranges hidden beneath the Antarctic ice.

The longer version

Mountain building happens wherever the crust is compressed, stretched or heated from below, so no continent is without ranges. Erosion wears old ranges down, but the roots of ancient belts remain in the rock record. Some chains are buried beneath younger sediment or, in polar regions, beneath ice.

Ice sheets hide the terrain below them, and only radar and sound based surveys reveal the shape of the bedrock. Ranges there formed long before the ice arrived, and some peaks poke through the surface as isolated summits called nunataks. The hidden relief is comparable in scale to ranges found on other continents.

Where this entry sits

These facts wander across maps, borders, deserts, rivers, mountains, and the extreme corners of the natural world. Each one is short and self-contained, offering a small surprise about places you may never visit rather than anything you actually need. The full list sits on the Geography page, where every entry is listed in order.

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