Fun facts about mountains

How mountains are formed?

The world's tallest mountain ranges form when pieces of Earth's crust—called plates—smash against each other in a process called plate tectonics, and buckle up like the hood of a car in a head-on collision.

• Thirty of the world’s highest mountains are in the Himalaya.

• The summit of Mount Everest, at 29,035 feet (8,850 meters), is the highest point on Earth.

• Formerly known as St. Peter's Mount, Kinabalu is the highest mountain in the Malay Archipelago.

• The tallest mountain measured from top to bottom is Mauna Kea, an inactive volcano on the island of Hawaii in the Pacific Ocean.

• Well-known volcanoes on land include Mount St. Helens in Washington State and Mount Fuji in Japan.