Tallest Mountain in the World

The diversity in the geographical features of the planet is quite amazing. On one hand, we have the Mariana Trench in the Pacific Ocean, the deepest point on the planet with a depth of 11,033 meters, and on the other, we have the Mt Everest, the tallest natural structure in the world with a height of 8,848 meters.

Mt Everest is indeed the tallest mountain in the world, but only when measured from the mean sea level (MSL). Other than measuring their height from the MSL, there exist two more methods by which we can measure the tallest geological structures on the planet:-

• measuring the structure from the ocean floor.
• measuring the structure from the center of the Earth.

If measured from the bottom of the ocean, the credit of being the tallest mountain goes to Mauna Kea, a volcanic crater in Hawaii, and if measured from the center of the Earth, the credit goes to Chimborazo, in the Andes mountain range.

Mount Everest: Tallest from the Mean Sea Level

Located in the Himalayan mountain range in Asia, Mount Everest is 29,029 feet (8,848 meters) tall. Although, the mountain is known by several different names, it derived its official name - 'Mount Everest' from the Royal Geographic Society in 1865. The height of this gigantic structure was first established in 1856, then known as Peak XV, as 29,002 feet by the Great Trigonometric Survey of India. However, further research proved that the height was 29,029 feet, which is taken into consideration today. This was measured by the Indian authorities in 1955, and was confirmed by the Chinese authorities in 1975. The second tallest happens to be the K2 with a height of 8,611 meters above mean sea level and the third tallest is the Kanchenjunga with a height of 8,586 meters above mean sea level.

Mauna Kea: Tallest from the Ocean Floor

Mauna Kea, in Hawaii, is 252 meters taller than Mount Everest. The height of Mauna Kea is 9,100 meters, only if measured from its base, which is at the bottom of the ocean. If measured from the mean sea level, this volcanic crater is only 4,207 meters in height. Approximately, half of the mountain is below the sea level, and hence, even though it is taller than Mount Everest, it is not technically the tallest.

Chimborazo: Tallest from the Center of the Earth

Another method by which the height of any geographic structure on the planet can be measured is by measuring it from the center of the Earth. By this criterion, the world's tallest mountain should be Chimborazo - an inactive stratovolcano in Ecuador. When measured from the mean seal level, the height of this volcano is just 6,310 meters, but when it is measured from the center of the planet, it is a whopping 3966.83 miles, i.e. 6384400 meters, tall. Chimborazo achieves this distinction only because of the oblate spheroid shape of the Earth. This also makes it the farthest point from the center of the Earth, but again technically speaking it is not the tallest.

Like we said earlier, there are some technical norms set to determine the tallest mountain on the planet, and going by these norms Mauna Kea and Chimborazo don't stand a chance against Mt Everest - officially the tallest in the world.