Why Everest Isn't Really The “Biggest Mountain”

Morning Mountains!

If I was to ask you “what is the biggest mountain?”

Many of you would answer…Mount Everest.

This big thing:

And you’d be right. But also wrong.

See technically speaking, yes Everest is the tallest mountain in the world.

(When measured from sea level)

But it's also kinda cheating.

Look, Everest stands at over 29,000 ft tall.

But the base of it is already at like 17,000 ft above sea level.

This is because Everest sits on the already super massive Himalayan mountain range.

So it's already kinda raised up.

This would put Everest's real height, excluding the Himalayan boost at just 12,000 ft tall.

Don’t get me wrong… this is still freakin MASSIVE, bigger than any European mountain.

But let's compare it to a proper mountain, Mt Denali, in Alaska.

That REALLY puts things into perspective, huh.

Not convincing enough?

Ok let's look at another argument against Everest supremacy.

Though Everest is the tallest mountain from sea level.

It's not the tallest measured… from the center of the Earth.

That falls to Mount Chimborazo in Equador.

But how? If Mount Everest is the tallest mountain from sea level, surely it would also be the tallest from the center of the Earth?

Well, actually no.

See, that would be true if earth was a PERFECT sphere, which it is not.

Because it spins, it bulges very slightly at the equator.

And Chimborazo is in the country of Equador, which is literally ON the equator.

This makes Mt Chimborazo roughly 6000 feet taller than Everest measuring from the center of the Earth.

Pretty cool right?

Well, I have one more contender for the true BIGGEST mountain…

Hawaii…

Now, I know what you're thinking. “But Hawaii is a state”

Yes, true, but Hawaii is also… a GIANT mountain. The biggest in the entire world.

It's just that most of it is underwater.

If you measure the island of Hawaii from the sea floor it comes out to over 33,400 feet tall.

Comparing that to Mount Everest's real height, it absolutely DWARFS it.

So… which one do you think wins?

Stay Cute,
Reece, Henry & Dylan 🌈

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