Home » Records » Highest Mountain

Highest Mountain in the World

Depending upon how you define “highest mountain,” Mount Everest has some rivals!

Mount Everest: Highest Altitude

Mount Everest: Highest Altitude

If you ask almost anyone to name the highest mountain in the world, their answer will probably be “Mount Everest.” Mount Everest, located on the border between China and Nepal, has an altitude of 8,848.86 meters (29,031.69 feet) – making it the highest mountain in the world. The altitude of 8,848.86 meters is officially recognized by China and Nepal. Both countries agreed to use the elevation of the mountain’s snow cap, rather than a bedrock elevation of 8,844 meters.

What does “world’s highest” really mean?

Mount Everest is called the world’s highest mountain because it has the “highest elevation above sea level.” We could also say that it has the “highest altitude.”

The peak of Mount Everest is 8,848.86 meters (29,031.69 feet) above sea level. No other mountain on Earth has a higher altitude. However, some mountains might be considered “taller” (with taller being “the total vertical distance between their base and their summit”).

ADVERTISEMENT

Mauna Kea: Tallest Mountain

ADVERTISEMENT

Mauna Kea: Tallest Mountain

Mauna Kea, a volcanic mountain on the island of Hawaii, has an altitude of 4,207 meters (13,803 feet) – much lower than Mount Everest. However, Mauna Kea is an island, and if the distance from the bottom of the nearby Pacific Ocean floor to the peak of the island is measured, then Mauna Kea is “taller” than Mount Everest.

Mauna Kea is over 10,000 meters tall compared to 8,848.86 meters for Mount Everest – making it the “world’s tallest mountain.”

Chimborazo: Farthest from the Center of the Earth

Information Sources
[1] Mount Everest Grows by Nearly a Metre to New Height: article on the BBC website, last accessed September 2022.

Chimborazo: Farthest from the Center of the Earth

Chimborazo, a volcano in Ecuador, has an altitude of 6,263 meters (20,549 feet). Mount Everest has a higher altitude, and Mauna Kea is “taller.” However, the top of Chimborazo is farther from the center of the Earth than the top of Mount Everest and the top of Mauna Kea.

Farther from the center of the Earth?

Earth’s shape is not a perfect sphere. Instead, it is an oblate spheroid – meaning that it is a few miles wider at its equator than locations north and south of the equator. In addition, Earth’s shape is also a slightly pear-shaped oblate spheroid – meaning that it is a few miles wider below the equator than above the equator.

ADVERTISEMENT

That shape makes it possible for the top of Chimborazo, which is located slightly south of the equator (and shorter than Mount Everest) to be farther from the center of the Earth than the top of Mount Everest (which is a considerable distance north of the equator).

Chimborazo is located about one degree south of the equator. At that location, it is 6,384 kilometers (3,967 miles) above Earth’s center, or about 2 kilometers (about 1.2 miles) farther from Earth’s center than Mount Everest.