16

When I was browsing through the wikipedia page of the Denali mountain, I came across some piece of information.

Refer the screenshot below.

enter image description here

What does the term Prominence and Isolation mean?

WedaPashi
  • 31,727
  • 22
  • 110
  • 274
  • 7
    Prominence and Isolation are links in the above screenshot. They're also purple, so you probably clicked them... – Nick T Oct 19 '15 at 19:01
  • Mount Everest - Isolation = 40,008 km. I lol'd. (Explanation: 40,008 km is the circumference of the Earth, so you'd have to go that far in a "straight line" [great circle route] to circle around to the same peak again.) For the next few the isolation is probably just about the distance to one of the other mountains higher on the list. – Random832 Oct 19 '15 at 20:21
  • 3
    @NickT: Yes I did, on my Cellphone, Reading it that way didn't make much a sense (as I was travelling). And, I strongly believe wikipedia is not always the best way to get your answers. Thats why we have forums like this one – WedaPashi Oct 20 '15 at 04:16
  • 3
    @NickT What's the point here? I often ask questions here when I know an answer or some kind of answer. Still we want to get better answers and more infos on the topic collected in one thread. Also it helps other people and I like the idea to have a good knowledge base here. Really I don't get your point in trying to catch someone in something ... – Wills Oct 20 '15 at 05:34
  • 2
    @NickT It's even OK to ask a question and later answer it by yourself... – Wills Oct 20 '15 at 05:45
  • 2
    @NickT: Welcome to The Great Outdoors, by the way. You'll find plenty of question which could easily be answered if the person who asked (usually, we call OP) does a google search or read the wiki page. But then, here you get additional information through discussions, or even sometimes cross-points. Thats the beauty of this forum. – WedaPashi Oct 20 '15 at 05:57
  • 1
    @NickT, as WedaPashi pointed out - this is perfectly fine to a) seek more information via other places, and b) ask and answer one's own question. The point of The Great Outdoors is to be a solid and high quality repository of information for future visitors, even if the question & answer is by the same person. – studiohack Oct 20 '15 at 17:49
  • @WedaPashi FYI this site and network is not a forum but a Q&A site. Very different things. – TylerH May 30 '17 at 14:01
  • @TylerH: Ok. Thanks for pointing that out. – WedaPashi May 31 '17 at 05:41

2 Answers2

29

Isolation and prominence are the two key criteria to classify a peak as an independent mountain.

To understand the meaning I like the visualization from the German Wiki where

  • "Dominanz" means isolation and
  • "Schartenhöhe" means prominence:

enter image description here

Isolation is the distance to the next point with the same height (radius) of a higher mountain. So the nearest higher mountain seen from B is A, see the distance marked as "Dominanz".

Prominence is the difference from the peak to the next key col to which you have to descend at least to be able to reach a higher peak. So from summit B you have to descend at least to the col between B-C, therefore the marked "Schartenhöhe". The col between B-B' is not relevant because B is the higher peak.

Wills
  • 12,159
  • 5
  • 53
  • 114
8

Prominence

Is it's height above the surrounding ground (so the ground level is x height above sea level, the mounting is y height above sea level, it's Prominence = y -x)

Isolation

Is the distance between it and the nearest point at the same height.

This is all based on the "footprint" on a map of a peak. This can be straight forward, or it can be very complicated.