Why No One Can Agree What’s REALLY the Tallest Mountain

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What's the tallest mountain on Earth? It might seem like an easy question to answer, but in reality it's one that brings up more NEW questions than answers. It turns out that the way we measure mountains rests on a lot of approximations, assumptions, and averages. And when you dig into those, there's several contenders for the tallest mountain, each with their own good case for the title. So, which mountain do YOU think should take the throne?

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[besmart]

So which one do YOU think deserves the title? 🏔🏆

[isacami]

i remember being in highschool, confused about electronegativity in atoms, and the book i was working with said: "we cannot measure how electronegative an atom is, but we can measure it *against* another atom, and compare. Just like with mountains, which are measured against sea level"
and i thought: "well, now i'm confused about two things"

[MariaMartinez-researcher]

This issue is hilariously portrayed in the 1995 film The Englishman Who Went Up A Hill But Came Down A Mountain. "Two English cartographers arrive in a small Welsh village and declare that its mountain is actually a hill. Later, the offended citizens hatch a plan to make the hill high enough before they leave." Let's add national pride to the practical problems of measuring mountains...

[datukalex]

So, if the oceans evaporated, Everest will still be the tallest, and Mauna Kea will be the most prominent, and we’re done.

[tariffictypist]

Highest point: Chimbarazo
Tallest point:Mount Everest
Tallest point in the winter: K2
Most prominent fully climbamble mountain: Mount Denali
Most prominent mountain knowing its the tallest base to peak: Mauna Kea
Tallest mountain with no surrounding mountain range: Mount Kilimanjaro
Tallest mountain from tectonic height
Mauna Loa
These are the qualifications here to put into consideration when discussing the tallest mountain

[mariacorrales]

The atmosphere is what decides.
Everest is the highest in the atmosphere, which is the same as measuring its height above sea level. If there is any doubt, ask a climber if you suffer the same when climbing Chimborazo or going beyond 8000 m.

[Wakssbm]

To have been on top of the chimborazo, the view is utterly amazing. It was one hell of a workout though. 8 hours of climbing, starting at 11pm, and arrive to the top right on time for the sunrise.

[rpb]

Fun Trivia: Nanga Parbat literally means "Naked Mountain" and Dhaulagiri means "White Hill/Mountain" and Himalaya(s) means "House of Ice (Like the house where Ice lives)"

[VoIcanoman]

2:15 There are certainly huge currents, deep underground, that carry material up through the mantle. It's just not molten. This is a common misconception. *The mantle is nearly 100% solid.* It is, however, plastic in nature, meaning that it can deform without breaking, and so solid hot material can rise through the mantle, and solid cold material sinks. Melting only occurs at very specific places along plate boundaries (and at hot spots). Moreover, with rare exceptions (e.g. kimberlite pipes, where diamonds come from), all magma is melted in the top 100 km of mantle. Given that the mantle is almost 3, 000 km thick, barely any of it is liquid.

I did appreciate the discussion of the ridge-push vs. slab pull (as the primary cause of plate tectonics) debate. That is something you rarely see in videos of this nature, so good job!

Finally, I have actually climbed part-way up Chimborazo volcano...awesome mountain, but the air has almost exactly 50% of the oxygen at sea level, so if you aren't acclimatized to these conditions, it's like you take 3 steps uphill and have to rest for a minute (barely exaggerating). It's nice too, because you can DRIVE to 5, 100 meters above sea level on Chimborazo, so even if you aren't willing to climb up a (dormant) volcano, you can experience this oxygen deprivation for yourself, without much effort *(and you get to be further away from the center of the Earth than anywhere else on the planet's surface).* Also, you get to observe some killer geology (lots of evidence of both faulting and folding near Chimborazo, as the plates colliding have smushed the crust up), plus all the vicuña you could ever hope to see. If you're up for a cool adventure (with beaches, Amazonian rainforest, cloud forest, and some of the highest mountains on Earth...including a few extremely lively volcanoes), go to Ecuador! [Peru gets all the attention amongst Andean nations, but Ecuador is just as interesting. And they use the US dollar as their official currency, so it's pretty easy to just hop on a plane and check it out.]

[seattlegrrlie]

As a geologist, I always thought it was ridiculous to measure anything by "sea level" a number that quite literally changes multiple times a year and is not the same everywhere. Trying to calculate elevation in the past requires complex assumptions of sea level in the past. Crust rebounds due to less ice weight while levels rise and fall in summer and winter plus tidal forces due to how close or far the sun and moon are from the earth and how round or less round the earth is and... I am having flashbacks from geophysics class

[Polymathically]

As someone who majored in Geography, I love seeing the Earth's geoid being discussed in a video. Our planet is a complex, fascinating place.

[uzzimiles]

1:54 ...". Where neighbouring plates are bumping, grinding or spreading apart".. thank God i was not the only one who thought of it that way 😭😂..

[evlinalw]

Can I just say I love this channel, found it recently. I’m 40 and a lifelong PBS fan and supporter when I’m able. Never too old to learn something new! THANK YOU!

[adanrodriguezq]

I loved this episode! So clear explanation! Thanks Joe and PBS! 😊

[walksontherock]

Fascinating video with easy to understand explanation. Thanks for posting.

[ON]

*one of the questions I always had in my mind, also mean sea level is pretty confusing, if we could somehow calculate the thickness of earth crust below that mountain it would be the perfect key to measure the correct mountain height*

[magister]

If we measured mountain heights from the center of the Earth, then the mountains on other planets would be huge!

[FlyntofRWBY]

8:11 The editor complimenting a dad joke with another dad joke is the crest of dad humor.

[aaronleblanc]

0:59 . . . I wonder if he made an attempt at pronouncing Kanchenjunga in the outtakes before the director just went with “this one.”

[darryllmaybe]

Great video. This was very interesting.