If you don’t calculate it by altitude, measure a mountain from the foot of the mountain. Which mountain do you think is the highest?

If the calculation is not based on altitude, the answer will be very inconsistent, because the earth is actually a water ball, and as a sphere, it is too uneven and smooth. However, according to scientific understanding, we can still have a chat.

On a planet with gravity, the ultimate height of a mountain is closely related to the planet's gravity; therefore, how tall a planet's mountains can grow depends first on the planet's gravity. For example, Earth's brother Mars has a much weaker gravity than Earth (38% of Earth's), so Olympus Mons on Mars can grow to 21,171 meters. But if it is on a white dwarf, then sorry, the peak of the highest mountain range is estimated to be about 1cm.

Another main reason for the realistic height limit of rocky planetary mountains is the strength limit of planetary rocks. As the height of the planet's mountain peaks increases, the rock at the bottom will bear the weight of the entire mountain. When the rock is not strong enough to support the weight of the mountain, the rock at the bottom will collapse and is generally believed to be compressed into magma. This is the peak growth height of the mountain.

Most of the rocks on the earth are mainly composed of silicon dioxide (SiO2), calcium carbonate (CaCO3), etc. Therefore, according to material mechanics and gravity derivation analysis, the highest limit of the mountains on the earth is theoretically Can reach 21700m.

Although the altitude of Mount Everest reaches more than 8,840 meters, its relative height is actually only more than 3,600 meters. If it were not standing on the shoulders of the giant of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, it would indeed be inconspicuous.

On land, the world’s highest relative peak is Namjagbarwa Peak in eastern Tibet. At the foot of this mountain with an altitude of 7,782 meters is the Yarlung Zangbo Grand Canyon, the deepest and widest canyon in the world. The lowest point of the Grand Canyon is about 1,000 meters above sea level, which makes the relative height of Namjagbarwa Peak reach more than 6,700 meters.

Please note that the example I just gave was on land. This is far from the theoretical limit we just calculated. But don’t forget the hidden premise that our earth is actually a water ball.

The absolute highest mountain on earth - Mauna Kea in Hawaii.

Although the altitude of this mountain is only 4205 meters. But it is part of a huge mountain range under the Pacific Ocean, so the exposed part of the mountain is only two-fifths of its total height. Its true base can be traced back to the bottom of the Pacific Ocean at a depth of 6,000 meters. If we do not calculate it based on altitude, but directly measure it based on the absolute height difference from the foot of the submarine mountain to the top of the mountain, its peak height is more than 10,000 meters, making it the well-deserved 10,000-meter peak on the earth.

We have considered both the land and the seabed. However, because the questioner has a big imagination and he did not give a fixed standard, there is actually another situation that we must consider, that is, according to the center of the earth Starting to calculate the absolute height, the highest mountain at this time should be regarded as the highest mountain on the earth!

If measured according to this standard, our ultimate champion is neither Mount Everest, nor the King of Land and the King of the Sea just now, but a very inconspicuous mountain-Chimborazo Volcano in Ecuador. .

Mount Chimborazo is located 150 kilometers south-southwest of Quito, the capital of Ecuador. It is a conical dormant volcano with an altitude of 6,263 meters. This altitude cannot even enter the 8,000-meter club on land, but its geographical location is very special. It is located exactly 1 degree south latitude, which is on the equator.

The true face of the earth is not only a water polo, it is not even a standard sphere - in fact, it is an ellipsoid. The equator is fat and the poles are flat, like a pear. If you zoom in to the size of the planet, the equator is 21km farther from the center of the earth than the poles. If a mountain peak is closer to the equator, it is truly standing on the shoulders of giants!

The distance between Mount Chimborazo and the center of the earth is 6,384 kilometers. Mount Everest is located at 28 degrees north latitude, 6,382 kilometers away from the center of the earth. Mount Everest has to lose a whole 2km!

So, without rules, there would be no radius. Altitude is still a good criterion to measure the choice of mountains. Otherwise it would really be a mess!

However, since the ultimate mountain height on the earth can reach more than 20,000 meters, and counting from the bottom of the sea, no mountain peak can reach this value. Why is this?

We all know that Mount Everest is the highest mountain on earth, with an altitude of 8844.48 meters. However, Mount Everest is located in the Himalayas with an average altitude of 6,000 meters. The Himalayas have an average altitude of 4,000 meters. It is a mountain range on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, so if you count the height of Mount Everest from the foot of the mountain, its height is not too high.

There is a base camp for climbers at the foot of Mount Everest, which can be reached by driving a car. The altitude here is 5,200 meters, and the altitude of the top of Mount Everest is 8,844.43 meters. Then subtract the two to get The height of Mount Everest from the foot of the mountain to the top of the mountain is 3644 meters. This is actually the height of its peak.

Looking at it this way, the height of Mount Everest as a mountain is not very high. For example, the height of Mount Gongga, located south of Kangding, Sichuan Province, my country, is much higher. The altitude of Gongga Mountain is 7556 meters. At the foot of the mountain is the Dadu River, which is only a little over 1000 meters. Calculated in this way, the height of Gongga Mountain is about 6,500 meters, so if the height is calculated from the foot of the mountain to the top of the mountain, it is higher than the height of Mount Everest.

But Mount Gongga is not the highest mountain on the earth from the foot of the mountain to the top of the mountain. This crown belongs to Mauna Loa in the Hawaiian Islands. It is a volcano. If you count it from the foot of the mountain, then its The height is higher than the altitude of Mount Everest.

Mauna Loa is the largest of the series of volcanoes in the Hawaiian Islands. It is cone-shaped. Its foot is at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean with a water depth of 5998 meters. From sea level, its altitude is 4205 meters. If the two are added together, the height difference of this giant volcano from the foot of the mountain to the top of the mountain is 10,203 meters, which is more than 1,000 meters higher than the altitude of Mount Everest. If it is the height from the foot of the mountain to the top of the mountain, then this mountain is almost the same It is three times as high as Mount Everest, which shows how amazing its height is.

Mauna Loa is one of the most active volcanoes in the world today. It has erupted 35 times in the past 200 years, leaving several craters on the top of the mountain. They are located 2,700 meters wide. Inside the large caldera, when it erupted, the height of the magma erupted exceeded the height of the Empire State Building in New York. In an eruption in 1950, the lava flow reached more than 50 kilometers. A large amount of lava flowed into the sea, creating many new islands in the Hawaiian Islands. Less land.

Answer: There will be different results according to different height definitions. Mount Everest is the highest peak measured from sea level. If calculated from the foot of the mountain, the relative height of Namjagbarwa Peak, the 28th highest peak in the world, is It can reach 7,000 meters, which is more than 3,000 meters higher than the relative height of Mount Everest. The relative height of Gongga Mountain in Sichuan is also more than 6,000 meters.

In geography, the height of a mountain refers to the height from sea level. In this case, the highest mountain on earth is Mount Everest (8844.48 meters). However, Mount Everest is located in Qinghai-Tibet with an average altitude of 4,000 meters. On the plateau, if calculated from the foot of the mountain, the relative height of Mount Everest is only 4,100 meters; in addition, the base camp on the east slope of Mount Everest is 5,200 meters above sea level, which is the highest altitude that can be reached by car. The height of Mount Everest is 3,640 meters from the base camp on the east slope. Domi.

There are many peaks whose relative height is much higher than Mount Everest when measured from the foot of the mountain. For example:

Namjagbarwa Peak is located in Linzhi City, Tibet Autonomous Region, with an altitude of 7,782 meters. It is the same as Mount Everest. Jala Bailei Peak is sandwiched between the lower reaches of the Brahmaputra River. The river surface is 762 meters above sea level. If this is the foot of the mountain, the relative height of Namjagbarwa Peak reaches 7020 meters, which is regarded as the mountain with the largest relative height above the horizontal plane.

Gongga Snow Mountain is the highest mountain in Sichuan, with an altitude of 7,514 meters. At its foot is the Dadu River, with an altitude of only more than 1,000 meters above sea level. Therefore, the relative height of Gongga Mountain is more than 6,000 meters.

K2 is the second highest peak in the world, with an altitude of 8,611 meters. Starting from the north base camp, at a horizontal distance of 5 kilometers, the vertical drop of K2 is as high as 4,700 meters, with an average slope of 45 degrees. The climbing difficulty is more than Mount Everest is even bigger, and the mortality rate is as high as 27%, which is twice that of Mount Everest.

Located in the middle of the Hawaiian Islands, with an altitude of 4,170 meters. Although the altitude of the Mauna Loa volcano is not high, its foot reaches more than 6,000 meters deep into the seabed. From the seafloor, the drop is as high as 10,200 meters, which is more than 10,200 meters. Mount Everest is still more than 1,000 meters higher.

It is 6,272 meters above sea level. Due to the rotation of the earth, there will be a slight bulge near the equator, making Chimborazo (located at 1° south latitude) the furthest peak from the center of the earth in the world. The mountain is 6384 kilometers long, 2 kilometers longer than Mount Everest (Everest is at 28° north latitude).

In the solar system, the currently known highest mountain is Olympus Mons on Mars. The drop from the foot of the mountain is as high as 21.9 kilometers, and the width of the foot of the mountain reaches 600 kilometers.

On Earth, theoretically the height of a mountain should not exceed 20 kilometers because the foot of the mountain has limited bearing capacity. However, the acceleration of gravity on Mars is only one-third that of Earth, so Olin can exist on Mars. Super high peaks like Mount Peace.

With an altitude of 8,844 meters, Mount Everest is undoubtedly the highest mountain in the world in terms of altitude (height above sea level). However, although Mount Everest is the highest mountain in terms of absolute height (between the bottom and the top of the mountain) In terms of total vertical distance), it is not the tallest mountain in the world.

The absolute highest mountain in the world is Mauna Kea. Its altitude is only 4205 meters, which is much lower than Mount Everest. But it is a dormant volcanic island on the island of Hawaii. The foot of the mountain is the nearby Pacific Ocean bottom, about 6,004 meters below sea level. In other words, more than half of it is submerged in water. If the height is calculated from the bottom of the mountain, Mauna Kea is more than 10,000 meters high, which is higher than the 8844-meter Mount Everest and is the highest mountain in the world. The Mauna Kea volcano is only one million years old and was formed after the volcanic eruption of the Pacific Plate.

Satellite image of Hawaii Island. The snow cap above is Mauna Kea.

Mauna Kea is not only the tallest mountain in the world, it is also home to the world's largest observatory, the $1.4 billion 30-meter telescope. The air on the mountain is very dry with almost no clouds, making it an ideal astronomical observatory.

In addition, because the Earth is not a perfect sphere, it expands outward at the equator and flattens near the poles. Ecuador's Chimborazo volcano, located one degree south of the equator, is located in the Andes Mountains. It is an extinct volcano with an altitude of only 6,310 meters, much shorter than Mount Everest. However, Chimborazo volcano is the farthest place from the center of the earth, with an altitude of 6,384 meters. meters, which is 2 kilometers further from the center of the earth than Mount Everest. Everest doesn't even make the top 20 in terms of geocentric peak heights. Although Chimborazo is very close to the equator, it is high enough to support year-round snow cover.

Mount Everest, located on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, is 8844.43 meters above sea level and is known as the "world's highest peak". However, from other perspectives, Mount Everest is not the world's highest peak.

To be precise, Mount Everest is the highest mountain in the world.

Since 1987, my country has set the mean sea level of the Yellow Sea, which has been measured for many years, as the starting surface for calculating elevations across the country. The elevation system established based on this starting surface for elevation calculations is called the 1985 National Elevation Benchmark.

1985 National Elevation Baseline Conversion Method

What we often call altitude is based on the sea level of the Yellow Sea as the starting point.

In 1852, the British Waffle Surveying Team used geodetic methods to determine the height of Mount Everest on the Indian plains to be 8,840 meters, and for the first time determined that Mount Everest was the highest peak in the world.

Our country conducted the first elevation measurement of Mount Everest in 1975, and the obtained altitude was 8848.13 meters. It conducted a re-measurement in 2005, using more advanced technology and measurement methods, and finally obtained the current altitude. The altitude is 8844.43 meters (I once thought that the difference in altitude between the two times was due to the melting of the Everest glaciers).

Chinese mountaineers who measured Mount Everest for the second time in 2005

As mentioned before, the height we generally talk about is altitude. If we use different standards to measure, then what is the height of Mount Everest? The position of the highest peak in the world cannot be maintained.

(1) Geocentric distance

The earth is not a perfect sphere, but an irregular sphere with slightly flattened poles and bulging at the equator. The image point can be considered as a similar In the shape of "pear".

The average radius from the center of the earth to the equator is 6378 kilometers

The average radius from the center of the earth to the poles is 6356 kilometers, of which the North Pole is convex by 19 meters and the South Pole is depressed by 30 meters

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From the geocentric distance (the distance from the surface to the center of the earth), we can see that the geocentric distance at the equator is 22 kilometers higher than the north and south poles. Because of this, based on geocentric distance calculations, Chimborazo Peak, which is close to the equator, surpasses Mount Everest and becomes the world’s highest peak.

Chimborazo Peak is located in Ecuador, South America. It is the longest mountain range in the world— —A majestic peak in the Andes Mountains, 6,310 meters above sea level. The distance from the summit of Chimborazo to the center of the earth is 6384.1 kilometers, while the distance from the summit of Mount Everest to the center of the earth is 6382 kilometers. Therefore, Chimborazo becomes "the thickest place on the earth's surface" with a gap of 2 meters. .

Chimborazo Peak (78.81663 West Longitude, 1.46914 South Latitude) In addition, Chimborazo Peak is also a volcano in a dormant period, benefiting from an altitude of 6310 meters, even though it is very close to the equator, The top of the mountain is still covered with snow, and it is particularly spectacular under the scorching sunshine.

(2) Relative height

Relative height refers to the difference between the absolute heights of two locations, that is, selecting a specified reference ground as the datum, from the datum to the top of the mountain The distance (which can also be called the vertical height, that is, the vertical distance between the top of the mountain and the ground). The relative height allows us to more intuitively feel the majesty of the mountain.

Mount Everest is the highest mountain in the world. It is located on the tall Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, and its starting point is too high. From the top of Mount Everest to the Everest Base Camp at the foot of the mountain (about 5,100 meters above sea level), the relative height is only more than 3,700 meters. Compared with the altitude of 8844, it is indeed not enough to see.

In terms of relative height, Nanga Parbat takes the crown and becomes the highest peak in the world. Nanga Parbat, with an altitude of 8125 meters, is the ninth highest peak in the world. It is located in the western Himalayas in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir.

Nanga Parbat (74.58892 East Longitude, 35.23900 North Latitude)

Nanga Parbat follows the northwest ridge all the way down to the bottom of the Indus Valley at the foot of the mountain. The altitude here is only 1044 meters, and the relative height difference is 7081 meters, far exceeding Mount Everest.

I have to mention Gongga Mountain, the king of Shu Mountains in Sichuan. Gongga Mountain is 7556 meters above sea level. Because Gongga Mountain is located at the junction of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and the Sichuan Basin, it has an unparalleled absolute height.

Gongga Mountain (101.88231 East Longitude, 29.59299 North Latitude)

Taking Luding County on the eastern slope of Gongga Mountain as the base level, the base level is 1,300 meters above sea level. The relative height of Gongga Mountain is 6256 meters. Calculated based on Moxi Town, where tourists gather in Gongga Mountain, the base level is 1,500 meters above sea level, and the relative height is still 6,056 meters.

Gongga Mountain is really beautiful. I recommend everyone to take a look when you have the opportunity.

Ocean floor

As mentioned earlier, relative heights, if we extend the reference base to the seafloor, the world's highest peak will change hands again.

The Hawaiian Islands in the Pacific Ocean are volcanic archipelagos. These large or small islands are formed by the accumulation of eruptions from submarine volcanoes, and eventually emerge from the sea and become islands.

Among them, Mauna Loa, the highest peak in Hawaii, is an absolute monster! The height of Mauna Loa above sea level is 4205 meters, but there are still 5998 meters below sea level! So if you count from the foot of this volcano on the seabed, it will reach 10,203 meters, which is 1,359 meters higher than Mount Everest.

Mauna Loa (155.58745 West Longitude, 19.47700 North Latitude)

Hello everyone, I am just chatting, and I am happy to answer this question.

The question asked by the questioner can be simply understood as the relative height of a single mountain refers to the height difference between the top of the mountain and the base of the mountain (hereinafter referred to as the height difference); perhaps when the highest peak in the world is mentioned, everyone will think of it. Mount Everest, yes, this idea is very normal. Mount Everest’s 8844.43 meters, the world’s highest, is based on sea level, also known as absolute height;

Absolute height:

Absolute height, also called "elevation", refers to the vertical height above mean sea level (also called the geoid). It is called absolute height. Since sea level is not a standard horizontal plane, countries try to make their standard plane as close to the horizontal plane as possible when drawing maps. The absolute heights of various places in my country are calculated from the origin of the Yellow Sea level in Qingdao (i.e., the mean sea level of the Yellow Sea). The height of Mount Everest, the world's highest peak that we are familiar with, is 8844.43 meters.

Relative height:

Relative height: refers to the difference between the relative heights (also called altitudes) of two locations on a mountain peak, that is, selecting a specified reference ground as the datum. The distance from the base level to the top of the mountain (it can also be called the vertical height, that is, the distance from the top of the mountain perpendicular to the ground). We all know that Mount Everest is the highest peak in the world, but although Mount Everest is high in altitude, according to this standard, on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau with an average altitude of more than 4,000 meters, the relative height of Mount Everest is only more than 3,600 meters.

So which mountain has the largest height difference in the world?

Gongga Mountain

Located in the three cities and counties of Luding, Kangding and Shimian in the Garze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Gongga Mountain is the mountain with the largest relative height difference in the world, reaching 6,200 meters (from The highest mountain from the foot of the mountain to the top) - data comes from "China National Geographic".

1. Mount Logan (N60°18′W140°24′, 5949 meters) has a relative height of 5949 meters.

Located in Canada, the second highest mountain in North America

Mount Everest: highest altitude

Almost everyone calls Mount Everest "the highest mountain in the world" , climbers from all over the world head to Mount Everest, hoping to gain the honor of climbing "the highest mountain in the world."

What exactly does "the world's tallest" mean?

Mount Everest is called the highest mountain in the world because it has the "highest altitude". We can also say that it has the "highest altitude".

Mount Everest is 8,848 meters above sea level. No other mountain on Earth has a higher elevation. However, some mountains may be considered "taller" (taller being "the total vertical distance between their base and top").

Mauna Loa: the highest mountain

Mauna Loa is an active volcano, about 6,000 meters below sea level, and its peak is about 4,000 meters above sea level. The distance between the base of the mountain and the top of the mountain is approximately 10,000 meters. This makes Mauna Loa the "tallest" mountain in the world.

Mauna Loa is 4,205 meters above sea level, much lower than Mount Everest. However, Mauna Loa is an island, and if measured from the bottom of the nearby Pacific ocean floor to the island's highest point, Mauna Loa is "taller" than Mount Everest.

Mauna Loa Observatory: There are other differences at the top of Mauna Loa. In addition to being the world's tallest mountain, it is also home to the world's largest observatory. At an altitude of nearly 4,000 meters, the atmosphere on the mountain is very dry with almost no clouds. This makes it an ideal location for an observatory. Yes, that’s snow on Hawaii Island—high enough and cold enough to accumulate snow.

Chimborazo: the highest place above the center of the Earth

The Earth is not in the shape of a perfect sphere. Instead, its diameter is greatest near the equator. Chimborazo is located near the equator, the largest diameter area on Earth. This makes the top of Chimborazo the highest point above the center of the Earth.

Mount Chimborazo in Ecuador is 6,310 meters above sea level. Everest is higher and Mauna Loa has a "higher" clear height. However, Chimborazo meets the definition of "the highest mountain above the center of the Earth."

This is because the Earth is not a sphere - it is an oblate spheroid. The Earth is an oblate spheroid, with the equator being the widest. Chimborazo is one degree south of the equator. At that location, it is 6,384 kilometers farther than the center of the Earth and about 2 kilometers further than Mount Everest.

Although Mount Chimborazo in Ecuador is very close to the equator, its height means that its top is covered with snow all year round.

That should be Mauna Kea on Earth, also translated as Mauna Kea. It is a dormant volcano in the north-central part of Hawaii Island in the state of Hawaii, United States. Although its altitude is only 4205 meters, which is not as high as Mount Everest's 8844.43 meters above sea level, the base of Mauna Kea is on the seabed 6000 meters below sea level, so its actual height is 10203 meters, higher than Mount Everest. 1355 meters high.

However, if we count the tallest mountains in the solar system, Mauna Kea can only be ranked tenth and Mount Everest is eleventh. The following is the order:

1. Olympus Mons (Mars) - 24.94 kilometers

2. Rheasilvia Mons (asteroid Vesta) - 21.24 kilometers

3. Equatorial Ridge (Iapetus) - 19.96 kilometers

4. Mount Escorrels (Mars) - 18.19 kilometers

5. Mount Boasoli (Jupiter) )-17.54 kilometers

6. Mount Arsia (Mars)-15.93 kilometers

7. Mount Parmones (Mars)-14.00 kilometers

8. Mount Elysium (Mars) - 12.55 kilometers

9. Maxwell Mountains (Venus) - 10.94 kilometers

10. Mauna Kea (Earth) - 10.20 kilometers

11. Mount Everest (Earth) - 8.848 kilometers

If calculated in terms of altitude, Mount Everest is the highest mountain on earth, with an altitude of 8844.48 meters. If the altitude is not included, it should be from the foot of the mountain. To the height of the top of the mountain, there is a base camp for climbers at the foot of Mount Everest. You can get here by car. The altitude here is 5200 meters. The altitude of the top of Mount Everest is 8844.43 meters. Then subtract the two to get Mount Everest. The height from the foot of the mountain to the top of the mountain is 3644 meters, which is actually the height of its peak.

I think the peak that is not the highest should be Mauna Loa. It is the largest of a series of volcanoes in the Hawaiian Islands. It is cone-shaped. Its foot is at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean with a water depth of 5998 meters, starting from the sea. Calculated from the plane, its altitude is 4205 meters. If the two are added together, the height difference of this giant volcano from the foot of the mountain to the top is 10203 meters, which is more than 1000 meters higher than the altitude of Mount Everest. If it is from the foot of the mountain At the top of the mountain, the mountain is almost three times as high as Mount Everest.

Almost everyone calls Mount Everest "the highest mountain in the world," and climbers from all over the world travel to Mount Everest hoping to gain the honor of climbing "the highest mountain in the world."

What exactly does "the world's tallest" mean?

Mount Everest is called the highest mountain in the world because it has the "highest altitude". We can also say that it has the "highest altitude".

Mount Everest is 8,848 meters above sea level. No other mountain on Earth has a higher elevation. However, some mountains may be considered "taller" (taller being "the total vertical distance between their base and top").

Mauna Loa: the highest mountain

Mauna Loa is an active volcano, about 6,000 meters below sea level, and its peak is about 4,000 meters above sea level. The distance between the base of the mountain and the top of the mountain is approximately 10,000 meters. This makes Mauna Loa the "tallest" mountain in the world.