As large as they loom over the landscape, how much thought do most of us really give to mountains? They cover between six to twelve percent (depending on how you calculate it) of the planet’s exposed landscape. They hold the origins of all the planet’s rivers. And, in this age of global climate change, they will be one of the geographic locations most dramatically affected – and as a result transmitting those effects upon all other systems they touch.
Fortunately, for those who wish to get “up to speed” quickly on the subject of mountains, Oxford University Press has just released a new volume of their superb Very Short Introductions series devoted entirely to them, titled – appropriately enough – Mountains; A Very Short Introduction.
