A mountain is a large landmass that rises much higher than the land around it. Mountains usually form because moving tectonic plates push rock upward over millions of years.
The tallest mountain in the world is «Mount Everest», in the Himalayan mountain range between Nepal and China, standing over eight thousand eight hundred meters tall. The air at its summit is so cold and thin that climbers need special oxygen tanks to breathe.
The higher we climb a mountain, the colder it gets, which is why snow covers some mountaintops year-round, even in hot regions. Specialized animals sometimes live on mountain slopes, like the mountain goat, which can leap easily across sharp rocks.
