With a height of 8,849 meters above sea level, Mount Everest is considered the highest mountain in the world. It is indeed the highest mountain, but only if we consider the height above sea level.
However, if we were to measure the actual height of the mountains from their base to their summit, the highest mountain is not Mount Everest, but Mauna Kea, which is only 4,205 meters above sea level.
Mauna Kea is a dormant volcano on the island of Hawaii, and about 6,000 meters of its base remains submerged below the surface of the Pacific Ocean, more than half of its total height. If you calculate the actual height from the base under the ocean to the summit, Mauna Kea would be over 10,000 meters tall, at least 1,150 meters taller than Mount Everest.
Mauna Kea is the tallest volcano on Earth. It is believed to have formed above a hot spot in the Earth’s crust. While it probably remained stationary in the region where magma rises and erupts to the surface, the Pacific Plate moved over it to form its base. As the plate moved northwest, it created a series of volcanoes in the area.
It remains active, but the last eruption is thought to have been over 45,000 years ago.
The mountain is also known for having the largest astronomical observatory in the world, which provides ideal conditions with cloudless skies and high altitude.
Similarly, Mauna Loa, the second tallest mountain in Hawaii, becomes the second tallest mountain on Earth when measured from base to summit.
It is the largest volcano based on volume and area.
HIGHEST POINT IN THE WORLD
If you consider the height from the center of the Earth, neither Mount Everest nor Mauna Kea would be the tallest mountain. At 6,310 meters above sea level, Mount Chimborazo in Ecuador is the highest point in the world.
The mountain is much lower than Mount Everest and is not even the highest peak of the Andes where it resides. So what makes it the highest point in the world?
Our planet Earth is not a perfect sphere, but a flattened spheroid. The Earth is much flatter at the poles, but bulges out near the equator. Chimborazo is located just one degree south of the equator, making it the highest point in the world about 3,967 miles from the Earth’s core.
Chimborazo is also the closest point to the Sun on Earth’s surface, while Mount Everest isn’t even in the top 20 because it lies at 28 degrees north latitude.
