Quiz on Mountains

The Alps stretch across Europe and are most associated with which winter sport?

• Surfing
• Rowing
• Cricket
• Skiing ✓ (Correct answer)

Source: The word 'slalom' comes from Norwegian, but the Alps made downhill skiing a global obsession.

On which continent would you find the Andes mountain range?

• Africa
• Asia
• South America ✓ (Correct answer)
• Australia

Source: The Andes are the world's longest mountain range on land, running about 7,000 km down South America's spine.

Which mountain is the highest above sea level on Earth?

• K2
• Mount Everest ✓ (Correct answer)
• Kangchenjunga
• Mont Blanc

Source: Everest tops out at 8,849 m, but measured from base to summit, the underwater Mauna Kea is actually taller.

What is the frozen mass of slow-moving ice found high in mountains called?

• Glacier ✓ (Correct answer)
• Iceberg
• Avalanche
• Snowfield

Source: Glaciers act like slow rivers of ice, carving the deep U-shaped valleys you see across the Alps.

Mountaineers often suffer 'altitude sickness' high up because the air contains less of what?

• Nitrogen
• Carbon dioxide
• Oxygen ✓ (Correct answer)
• Hydrogen

Source: Above 8,000 m lies the 'death zone', where oxygen is so thin the body slowly shuts down.

Mountains form mainly when massive sections of Earth's crust do what?

• Collide and fold ✓ (Correct answer)
• Cool and shrink
• Spin and drift
• Dry and crack

Source: The Himalayas are still rising a few centimetres a year as India keeps ramming into Asia.

Which range forms a natural border between France and Spain?

• The Alps
• The Pyrenees ✓ (Correct answer)
• The Jura
• The Carpathians

Source: Tucked in the Pyrenees is Andorra, a tiny country co-ruled by a French president and a Spanish bishop.

The four U.S. presidents carved into Mount Rushmore are sculpted into which kind of rock?

• Granite ✓ (Correct answer)
• Limestone
• Marble
• Sandstone

Source: Granite erodes only about 2.5 cm every 10,000 years, so the faces should last for ages.

Which famous African peak is a free-standing dormant volcano you can hike without ropes?

• Mount Kenya
• Table Mountain
• Mount Elgon
• Mount Kilimanjaro ✓ (Correct answer)

Source: Despite sitting near the equator, Kilimanjaro is high enough to keep a shrinking glacier at its summit.

The Matterhorn's instantly recognizable pyramid shape sits on the border of Switzerland and which country?

• Austria
• France
• Italy ✓ (Correct answer)
• Germany

Source: The Matterhorn's silhouette famously inspired the shape of the Toblerone chocolate bar.

Which mountain range runs down the length of Italy like a backbone?

• The Apennines ✓ (Correct answer)
• The Dolomites
• The Balkans
• The Vosges

Source: The Apennines run nearly the whole Italian peninsula and still rumble with earthquakes today.

Which mountain range contains the majority of the world's peaks above 8,000 metres?

• The Andes
• The Rockies
• The Himalayas ✓ (Correct answer)
• The Caucasus

Source: All 14 of Earth's 8,000-metre peaks sit in the Himalaya and neighbouring Karakoram, nowhere else.

The highest peak in North America rises in Alaska and is now officially named what?

• Mount Logan
• Denali ✓ (Correct answer)
• Mount Whitney
• Pikes Peak

Source: Long called Mount McKinley, it was officially restored to its Native Alaskan name 'Denali' in 2015.

Measured from its base on the ocean floor, which mountain is the tallest on Earth?

• Mount Everest
• Mount Fuji
• Aconcagua
• Mauna Kea ✓ (Correct answer)

Source: Hawaii's Mauna Kea rises over 10,000 m from the seabed, beating Everest base to summit.

Which European peak is generally considered the continent's highest, sitting in the Caucasus?

• Mont Blanc
• Mount Elbrus ✓ (Correct answer)
• Zugspitze
• Grossglockner

Source: Russia's Mount Elbrus, a dormant volcano, edges out Mont Blanc as Europe's highest at 5,642 m.

A long, gentle ridge of snow overhanging a mountain edge, dangerous for climbers, is called a what?

• Crevasse
• Serac
• Moraine
• Cornice ✓ (Correct answer)

Source: Cornices form when wind sculpts snow over a ridge, and stepping on one can drop a climber off the cliff.

Which mountain is widely considered the deadliest of the 8,000-metre peaks to climb?

• K2
• Annapurna ✓ (Correct answer)
• Nanga Parbat
• Makalu

Source: Annapurna has historically killed roughly one climber for every three who reached its summit.

Who were the first two confirmed climbers to reach the summit of Mount Everest, in 1953?

• Hillary and Norgay ✓ (Correct answer)
• Mallory and Irvine
• Messner and Habeler
• Bonington and Scott

Source: Mallory and Irvine vanished near the top in 1924, leaving Hillary and Norgay's 1953 climb the first confirmed.

Which mountain range, not the Himalayas, contains K2 and most of the world's hardest 8,000-metre peaks?

• The Hindu Kush
• The Pamirs
• The Tian Shan
• The Karakoram ✓ (Correct answer)

Source: The Karakoram packs four 8,000-metre giants including K2, the savage mountain that resists winter ascents.

Due to Earth's equatorial bulge, which peak's summit is the farthest point from the planet's centre?

• Mount Everest
• Aconcagua
• Chimborazo ✓ (Correct answer)
• Mount Kenya

Source: Ecuador's Chimborazo sits on the bulging equator, so its summit pokes farthest into space, beating Everest.