What is the highest mountain on the ocean bed? (2024)

FAQs

What is the highest mountain on the ocean bed? ›

That title goes to Mauna Kea

The Pacific Ocean has an underwater mountain near Hawaii called the Mauna Kea. When measured from its underwater base, it is about 10,200 m in height. Mount Everest is 8,848 m high. Q.

The tallest mountain in the world from base to peak is Mauna Kea, a long-dormant volcano in Hawaii, USA. In total, it is approximately 10,205m (33481 feet) in height, taller than Mount Everest's 8,849m (29032 feet). Over half of Mauna Kea is underwater in the Pacific Ocean.

at its summit, Everest is indeed the highest point above global mean sea level—the average level for the ocean surface from which elevations are measured.

The thousands of mountains found on the ocean floor are called seamounts, and scientists recently announced they've identified nearly 20,000 new ones. “Scientists estimate there are at least 100,000 seamounts higher than 1,000 metres around the world,” says Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.

That prize goes to Mauna Kea, a dormant volcano in Hawaii. While it towers roughly 14,000 feet above the island, much of its height lies submerged below sea level. From its base well underneath the Pacific to the summit, Mauna Kea measures in at 33,484 feet- over 4 thousand feet taller than Mt. Everest.

Mauna Kea

The dormant volcano Mauna Kea in Hawaii is one of several known peaks that are arguably taller than Everest—as long as you're willing to award the title of “tallest” based on a technicality.

When measured from base to summit; yes, Mount Denali is taller than Mount Everest. What is the current yardstick of measurement? Mountains are measured from the sea level. So, Mount Everest is 29,032 feet above sea level, while Mount Denali is 20,310 feet above sea level.

Because the Hawaiian Islands slope deep into the ocean, Mauna Kea has a dry prominence of 9,330 m (30,610 ft). This dry prominence is taller than Mount Everest's height above sea level of 8,848.86 m (29,032 ft), so Everest would have to include whole continents in its foothills to exceed Mauna Kea's dry prominence.

More than half (19,698 feet) of Maunakea lies underwater, while 13,802 feet is above sea level.

What's the tallest thing on Earth? ›

Mount Everest is best described as the highest mountain in the world. In other words: it has the greatest elevation, at more than 29,000 feet (about 8,850 meters) above sea level.

The tallest of these “eight-thousanders” is Mount Everest, the standard to which all other mountains are compared. The Nepalese name for the mountain is Sagarmatha: “mother of the universe.” Everest's geological story began 40 million years ago when the Indian subcontinent began a slow-motion collision with Asia.

The highest mountain in the world is Mount Everest, sitting pretty at 8,848m in the Himalayas in Nepal.

The continental shelf is an area of relatively shallow water, usually less than a few hundred feet deep, that surrounds land. It is narrow or nearly nonexistent in some places; in others, it extends for hundreds of miles.

Far down beneath accumulated layers of sediment, the floor of the ocean is made of basaltic rock. This rock was formed from molten lava that oozed up from deep within the planet at the boundaries of Earth's tectonic plates.

The Atlantic Ocean grows 1.5 inches wider every year. The tectonic plates undergirding the Americas are separating from those beneath Europe and Africa.

1Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa: Two huge volcanoes

But nothing comparable with its neighbour the Mauna Loa, which rises to 40 m less (that is to say to 4 169 m), but which rises to 17 000 m (yes yes, 17 km) above its base!

Olympus Mons, the tallest planetary mountain in the Solar System, compared to Mount Everest and Mauna Kea on Earth (heights shown are above datum or sea level, which differ from the base-to-peak heights given in the list).

From base to height, Rheasilvia on the protoplanet Vesta is the tallest mountain in the Solar System. Olympus Mons on Mars is the tallest volcano in the Solar System, but is just a wee bit shorter than Rheasilvia.

Mauna Kea is a dormant 14,000-foot shield volcano. In Native Hawaiian lore, it is the first-born son of the sky father and earth mother. The mountain's dry atmosphere and limited light pollution make for a perfect location to study the skies — one of just a handful on the planet.