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wwarnout t1_ja8rsnv wrote

The concept of "tallest mountain" is based on sea level - which itself is not consistent. Due to Earth's rotation, sea level is farther from the Earth's center at the equator than at the poles. As a result, there is a mountain in South America (Mount Chimborazo's) whose peak is farther from the Earth's center, but because it is near the equator, it is not as high above sea level as Everest.

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kinda_alone t1_ja8tn2m wrote

Tallest from base to peak is a third way to calculate it. When measuring this way, Mauna Kea, Mauna Loa, and Haleakala from Hawaii are the three tallest.

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hoffmanmclaunsky t1_ja9odz2 wrote

driving up Haleakala is kind of a surreal experience. It just keeps going up. You start at warm balmy tropical beaches, two hours and 10,000 feet later you get out in a cold, desolate desert. And you can still see those warm balmy beaches in the distance. It's wild.

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turbanned_athiest t1_ja9qmr7 wrote

Did that on Mauna Kea, was amazing. Got an amateur astronomy guided tour of the sky on the way down. Fun fact: scuba diving and then driving up the mountain could give you decompression sickness, we must have been warned at least 5 times.

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Evolving_Dore t1_jaa9nxj wrote

And that's starting at sea level, not at the base, which is on the sea floor.

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relefos t1_jaa2ikt wrote

Interestingly, if you take this method and require the base’s elevation to be somewhere at or above sea level, you get the height of the mountain as it would appear to a human viewer

I say interesting bc when we use this methodology, Denali in Alaska actually appears to be the largest. While its peak is only ~20k feet above seal level, its lowest base is 3k above sea level. Making it appear to be 17k feet tall. Meanwhile Everest is something like 29k and 14k, making it appear to be 15k feet tall, or about 2k feet shorter than Denali

This is sometimes mistaken for a mountain’s “prominence”, but that’s actually a different measurement

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herbw t1_ja8v3ft wrote

Exactly!! A point anyone who has basic geologies in mind, also knows.

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DowntownScore2773 t1_ja9m8xh wrote

This isn’t an entirely accurate statement. Chimborazo is the mountain that is farthest from the earth’s core and closest to the sun due the earth’s centrifugal bulge. Tallest is a measurement from base to peak and not sea level to peak. The tallest mountain in the world is Mauna Kea in Hawaii whose base starts below sea level. Everest is the highest mountain peak in the world. Here is a NOAA site that explains the difference.

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dfox2014 t1_jaamovg wrote

Great link, that graphic helps a lot.

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LipTrev t1_jabjmpe wrote

> This isn’t an entirely accurate statement. Chimborazo is the mountain that is farthest from the earth’s core and closest to the sun due the earth’s centrifugal bulge.

But centrifugal is a false force /s

Chimborazo is a perfect example that people who say centrifugal force is a false force really need to close mouth, sit down.

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bolanrox t1_ja947p6 wrote

And everest is only the tallest because of how high above sea level the base is

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DowntownScore2773 t1_ja9ktxq wrote

There is a difference between tallest and height. Everest is the world’s highest mountain but not the tallest.

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PuddleCrank t1_ja989ed wrote

No, it's the tallest because the air is the thinnest at the top.

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herbw t1_ja8uyil wrote

Brilliant!! There is no such thing as absolute sea level. The sea levels in ports in Europe cannot be mostly all brought by 50% within 50 cm. to each other. And the Andes Mts. are still abuilding, too.

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