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A mountain is a landform that stretches above the surrounding land in a limited area, with a peak. A mountain is generally steeper than a hill, but there is no universally accepted standard definition for the height of a mountain or a hill although a mountain usually has an identifiable summit. Mountains cover 64% of Asia, 36% of North America, 25% of Europe, 22% of South America, 17% of Australia, and 3% of Africa. As a whole, 24% of the Earth's land mass is mountainous. 10% of people live in mountainous regions. Most of the world's rivers are fed from mountain sources, and more than half of humanity depends on mountains for water.[1][2] All 50 of the world’s tallest mountains are in Asia. The adjective montane is used to describe mountainous areas and things associated with them. Orology is its specialized field of studies, though the term is mostly replaced by "Mountain studies". Some authorities define a mountain as a peak with a large topographic prominence over a defined value for example, according to the Britannica Student Encyclopedia, the term "generally refers to rises over 2,000 feet (609.6 m)".[3] This is a widely accepted common usage in the UK; even though the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 gives a statute definition of a mountain as any "land above 600 m".[4] The Encyclopædia Britannica, on the other hand, does not prescribe any height, merely stating that "the term has no standardized geological meaning".[5] In the United States, the U.S. Board on Geographic Names lists hundreds of landscape features under 1,000&_160;feet (305&_160;m) (some as low as 100 feet) named as "mountains." This is true for all parts of the United States, including the west coast where such lofty ranges as the Cascade Mountains dominate. And yet the Board does not attempt to distinguish between such features as mountains, hills, or other prominences, and simply categorizes all of them as summit, regardless of what they are called or how high they are. However, the Board does list and categorize such low mountain ranges as the Mount Tom Range (with a high point of 1,200 feet; 366 m) as range.[1]
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