The earth’s surface is constantly moving, a few centimeters a year, with continents riding the drifting geologic plates. Where the plates collide, under or next to a continent, the crust thickens into mountains. … See more

In south-central Asia, the ongoing collisionbetween the Indian plate and the Asian plate has raised up the world's most mountainous area, the Himalayan orogenic belt. The area began rising in the last 50 million year… See more

The Tian Shan (or Tien Shan) continues eastward from the Hindu Kush into China and is separated from the Himalayan ranges and Tibet to the south by the huge Taklimakan Desert in the Tarim Basin. The Tian Shan … See more

The world's longest mountain chain, and the highest outside Asia, is the Andes, running 7000 miles from Colombia to the southern tip of South America. Unlike the Asian mountain ranges discussed earlier above, whi… See more

The Alaska Range is a long, narrow, curved range that traverses Alaska from the Aleutian Peninsula to the Yukon Territory. In its bend in Central Alaska, it has the highest mountain in North America, 20,237-foot Denali … See more