Mountain Shape Distribution Map (IMAGE)
Caption
The researchers examined ranges on every continent except Antarctica and found that the pyramid form in which land-area uniformly decreases as elevation increases only applies to roughly one-third of the world's mountain ranges. A majority, or 39 percent, of the ranges they studied are diamond-shaped (red), whereas pyramid-shaped mountains (green) constitute only 32 percent. The hourglass shape (blue) characterizes 23 percent of ranges, and only 6 percent of ranges take the form of an inverse pyramid (purple).
Credit
(Image by Paul Elsen, Princeton University Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, and Morgan Tingley, University of Connecticut)
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