Geography - Extreme Environments - Mountains - General Knowledge

A mountain range is considered to be an extreme environment due to their height and the diffuculties people face living in them. A mountain is a piece of land that is over 610m above sea level and is higher than the surrounding land.
In the UK, the highest mountains are Ben Nevis (1334m) in the highlands of scotland, snowdon (1085m) in the snowdonia in north of wales, scafell pike (978m) in the lake district england and slieve donard (849 m) in northan ireland. The highest of all mountains around the world is mount everest, located in the himalayas in asia at 8840m.

The Andes
The andes is a mountain range in south america which covers 2 million km2. Throughout the mountain range there are many different climates, cultures and terrain that pose challenges for the people that live and visit.

Mountains - describing their key characteristics such as; climate, landscape, population and density. I have chosen to focus on the Andes.

Andes - climate
- The weather in the andes can change very quickly as cumulonimbus clouds gather.  This is due to the relief of the mountains (relief- the different heights of the land, and how flat or steep it is). Warm air is pushed up over the mountains quickly. This air cools (remember it is cooler the higher up you are), it then condenses (turns from a gas to a liquid) and forms clouds that soon turn into storm clouds. This process is called relief rainfall…