Longest Mountain Ranges in the World
Our planet Earth is composed of a wide variety of physical as well as biological features. The physical attributes are the ones beholding the massive array of Biological Ecosystems including flora and fauna, animal adaptations, diverse life forms, extreme weather conditions and much more. These regions are known as the Hotspot regions of the World. And these hotspot regions are majorly the constituents of the Huge Mountain Ranges of the World.
The Longest Mountain Ranges in the World are:
- The Great Dividing Range
- Ethiopian Highlands
- The Andes
- The Himalayas
- Atlas
- The Alps
Highest Mountain Peaks Of India
The Great Dividing Range
The Physical features:
Australia is home to The Great Dividing Range. It comprises of a chain of plateaus as well as low mountain ranges emulating the “Coasts of Queensland” in New South Wales and Victoria. These Mountain Ranges stretches up to a length of about 2,300 miles or 3,700 kilometres, right from the Cape York Peninsula of Queensland to the Grampians in the Victoria Bass Strait between Australia and Tasmania.
The Mountain Range of Queensland elevates up to 3,000 feet or 600 to 900 meters. But it is as high as 5,000 feet or 1,500 meters in the Bellenden Ker and McPherson Ranges and the Lamington Plateau. On the other hand, the Australian Alps encompasses the Highest peak of Australia, known as “Mount Kosciuszko” that extends to 7,310 feet.
Flora and fauna:
Most of the animals ordained to the Mountain adaptation reside here. These animals include Tree Kangaroos and winged butterflies occurring in the rainforests of the North East mountains. Bird species found all over Australia include “Galash” and the “Australian Magpie”.
Flora comprehends Acacias, Eucalyptus, Hummock grasses as well as the flowering plants like “Banksias”, growing underneath. The Western slope vegetations eminently embrace the subtropical or temperate woodlands of Eucalyptus and scrub.
Ethiopian Highlands
The Physical Features:
Ethiopia has a quite complex relief feature. The Western Highlands and The Eastern Highlands are the only two mountain ecosystems out of the five topographic regions of the World. The North Central Massifs of the Western Highlands form the roof of Ethiopia, i.e.Mount Ras Dejen.
The largest inland lake which proves to be the main reservoir for the Blue Nile River elevated at 6,000 feet is known as “Lake Tana”. The Western Lowlands, on the other hand, are one of the hottest places on the entire planet Earth with a height of about 3,300 feet. These extend from the North-South Sudan border till the lower valleys of the Blue Nile, Tekeze and Baro Rivers.
Flora and fauna:
Ethiopia is a habitat for African mammals including lions, elephants, leopards, giraffes, wild buffalo and rhinoceroses. Ethiopian Mountain contains the rare dwelling and endangered species such as “Walia Ibex” of the Simien Mountains, the mountain nyala (an antelope), the “Simien Jackal” and “Gelada Monkey”.
The Primary vegetation types in the Ethiopian Highlands include “moorland”, “grassland”, “herb meadow”, a lovely “Rosa abyssinica”, “kosso tree”, “wild African olive tree” and one of the rarest species, the “Giant Lobelia” of about 20 feet when it springs.
The Andes
The Physical features:
The Andes is chiefly composed of a progression of collateral and diagonal mountain ranges or sierra, varied with interceding plateaus and depressions. They stretch from Tierra del Fuego (western edge of South America) to the Caribbean Sea (northernmost coast of America). The Andes contain the highest peaks and many volcanoes in the Western Hemisphere and the Eastern margin of the Pacific “Ring of Fire” respectively. The highest peak of Andes on the border of Argentina and Chile is “Mount Aconcagua”.
Flora and fauna:
Most of the South American animals acclimatize at the upper limit of the permanent snow line. Animals in the high plateau of South-Eastern Peru and Western Bolivia, i.e. Altiplano, include animals like “The Camelids”-Llama, guanaco, alpaca, vicuna, members of the cat family and white-tailed mice. It also hosts animals namely guemul, puma, vizcacha, cuy and chinchilla.
In the Patagonian Andes, the flora includes the magnificent mid-latitude rain forests of the Conifer genus Araucaria, oak, coigue, chusquea, cypress, larch. In contrast, cloud forests in the northern part include trees, namely Lauraceae, Melastomataceae and Rubiaceae. Grasslands are found all over the Andes found underneath a tall, thick-stemmed member of the Aster family called Espeletia.
The Himalayas
The Physical features:
The Himalayas hold a proficient significance for people of South Asia because of their literal, mythological and religious beliefs. These high peaked mountains covered with glaciers have been attracting a huge number of pilgrims and tourists since ancient times. The Himalayas have more than 110 peaks rising to an altitude of 24,000 feet or more above sea level. These count the mountain ranges namely, Kanchenjunga and Mount Everest (World’s highest peak) with an elevation of 29,035 feet.
Flora and fauna:
The Fauna of the Eastern Himalayas is somewhat similar to the fauna of South China and South East Asia. While the Western Himalayas consists of the animals that native to the Mediterranean, Ethiopian and Turkmenian regions. Elephants and rhinoceroses are found only in the Tarai region (moist and marshy areas). Animals variety comprise of Asiatic black bears, clouded leopards, langurs, Himalayan Goat antelopes (Tahr), musk deer, Kashmir stag, snow leopards, brown bears, lesser pandas and Tibetan Yaks. One can find diverse types of insects, spiders, mites above the tree lines of these regions.
The Himalayas have an abundance variety of Floral biodiversity. The lower shrublands with beautiful rhododendrons and meadows of grasses define the Western part of Himalayas. At the same time, the Eastern region has broadleaf forests, indigenous oaks, maples with orchids and ferns in the understory. The temperate sub-alpine conifer forests overshadow the topography with pine, hemlock, spruce and fir. One can find Balsam and other small flowering plants above the tree-line in the alpine regions.
Atlas
The Physical Features:
The Atlas is a sequence of chains of the mountain ranges in Northwestern part of Africa, running Southwest to Northeast all over Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia. They are broad with a width of about 1,200 miles, i.e. 2,000 kilometres. They stretch right from the Moroccan port of Agadir in the Southwest to the Tunisian capital of Tunis in the Northeast. “Mount Toubkal” is one of the highest points in the Atlas Mountains, of about 13,665 feet. Other imposing peaks in the Atlas include Mount Tidirhine (8085 feet), the Ouarsenis Massif rugged bastion (about 6512 feet height), the Great Kabylie (7572 feet) and Mount Chelia (about 7,638 feet). People have cleared most of the land in the Atlas region for agriculture, and a small part of the forest remains.
Flora and fauna:
Animal life here is also in shoot-through. There are only a few jackals, a few monkey tribes, i.e. Barbary macaques- the only African ape, found north of the Sahara Desert at higher altitudes, and sporadic herds of wild boars in the oak woods, located in the northern part of Atlas. The Atlas Mountains are impartially moderately vegetated because of the low rates of rainfall and high rates of soil erosion in this region. The areas with the highest rainfall bear moist forests of cork oaks with an arbutus undergrowth (cane apple) and heather shrubs that dotted with carpets of rockroses and lavender. While the dry regions comprise of the green oak and arborvitae (a species of pine tree), dry forests are having a thin and bushy undergrowth. Stands of cedar occupy most of the higher altitudes. But the dry peaks are generally dispersed to stands of green oak and juniper trees.
The Alps
The Physical Features:
Among all the physiographic regions, Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, Verona, Italy and the Alps are the most prominent physiographic regions of Western Europe. They span a length of about 750 miles and a width of 125 miles. Mont Blanc is the highest peak in the Alps, which is of about 15,771 feet. Other tall peaks in the Alps encompasses the Dufourspitze, Weisshorn, Finsteraarhorn, and the very illustrious Matterhorn. All of the mountains are at least of 14,000 feet in height.
Flora and fauna:
This rugged terrain consists of the animals, namely The ibex, a wild goat, and the chamois which looks like a goat. Marmots hibernate in the subway arcades. The mountain hare and the ptarmigan, a grouse, take on grizzled coats for winter. Several national parks in the Alps preserve the fauna of that region. Increasing population in the Alpine areas has led to the disappearance of several species. While, reinstating some treasured animals like the European lynx, the brown bear, and the bearded vulture (lammergeier).
Deciduous forests of oak and beech are responsible for the rise of the mixed forests of beech and fir with the increasing altitudes. In the higher elevations, dense evergreen forests of fir, larch, and pine cover a significant part of the topography. In the alpine regions, the most exemplar flowers of the Alps like edelweiss, alpine rose, heather, and gentian are generally.
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