Mount Everest

 Mount Everest

This tall mountain is part of the Himalayas and is located on the border of Nepal and China. This range of Himalayan mountains covers an area of twenty-four hundred kilometers. It originates from the northern region of Pakistan and extends to India, Nepal, China, and Bhutan. A peak of the Himalayan mountains i.e. Mount Everest is considered the world's highest point. Thousands of people try to climb this highest mountain in the world and some have even lost their lives in this attempt.

Today we are going to present you with a surprising fact. Today, according to modern science and experts, Mount Everest is not the highest point, or the highest peak, in the world. The scale used to measure its height is outdated today, if so, then what is the tallest mountain in the world? 

How much higher is it than Mount Everest?

What are the methods of measuring the height of mountains? 

In this blog, we will know all this. How is the height of mountains measured?  There are three ways you can find how high a mountain is. In the first method, you measure the height of the mountain above sea level using sea level as a reference, it is called elevation.

In another method, the distance or height from the exact central point of the inner core of the earth to the top of a mountain is measured, which shows how far the highest point of this mountain is from the central point of our planet.

While the third and easiest method is to measure the distance from the base of a mountain to its peak, that is, to measure the total height of the mountain. Let's talk about the first method, that is, how the height of mountains is measured from sea level.

Method 1 - Measuring the height above sea level

You often hear about mountain places that are this meters above sea level. Sea level usually refers to the average sea level. That is sea level, the average of one or more oceans used as a reference to measure elevations on land. In ancient times, people believed that in every region, the sea level is the same because the water in different oceans looks the same. But thanks to scientific progress, today we know that the sea level is not the same in every area. There could be many reasons for this such as climate change melting of glaciers, and even the shape of the land affects the ocean. The earth is neither flat nor perfectly round. So the sea level is different everywhere. today the sea level is determined at different places with the help of NASA satellites. If you want to check the sea level of a particular location you can measure it with different devices many tools were used for this purpose in the old days too. On this basis, you have been hearing till today that the highest place in the world is Mount Everest which is 29,030 feet (8,849 meters) above sea level.

Everest was first climbed in 1953, while Mount Everest was claimed to be the highest point and the highest mountain in the world almost a century before in 1856. British geographer Andrew Scott along with his team surveyed this mountain. The height of this mountain was measured horizontally using different principles of trigonometry. This procedure was repeated several times and then all the results were averaged. According to these results, the height of this mountain was 29,000 feet i.e. 8,849 meters.

Scott's team thought that no one would believe that the exact figure came to 29,000 feet. Therefore, he added some extra feet. Even today, the height of Mount Everest is considered 29,030 feet (8,849 meters). And it is considered the highest peak in the world. This claim of Mount Everest as the highest peak in the world is based on sea level criteria

Method 2 - measuring the distance from the innermost center of the earth. We learned about Mount Everest which is called the highest point in the world because it is 29,030 feet above sea level. Now we discuss other methods of measuring the height of mountains. We know that our Earth is like a ball. Every ball has center point, similarly, our planet also has a center point. In the second method, we measure the distance from the center of the Earth to the top of a mountain. A formula is used for this. The earth always rotates in a circle around its orbit

Due to this cycle, a force is created which is called the centrifugal force since the Earth is elliptical, and this force creates a bulge at the center of our planet. This bulge is permanent and causes the edges of the equator to move away from the center of the Earth. The equator is the line that divides the earth horizontally into two parts. This line passes through thirteen countries. These countries also include Ecuador, a country in South America

In this country, Chimborazo, a mountain in the Andes mountain range, is only one degree south of the equator, while Mount Everest in Asia is twenty-eight degrees north of the equator. If the height of Chimborazo mountain is measured from the sea level, it is 6,268 meters this mountain is so many meters above the sea level. In comparison, Mount Everest is 8,849 meters above sea level, meaning Mount Everest is higher but if we measure the distance from the center point of the planet Earth, the height of the peak of Mount Chimborazo is 6,384 kilometers compared to this, the height of Mount Everest from the center of the earth is 6,382 kilometers. That is, according to this criteria, Mount Chimborazo is two kilometers higher than Mount Everest. This two kilometers difference between Mount Chimborazo makes it the highest peak in the world. This difference is due to the bulge caused by a force. Because of this bulge, the area where the Chimborazo is located is higher or farther away from the center of the Earth. Due to this, this Chimborazo mountain becomes higher. Height from base to top of the mountain.

Method 3 -  A third way to measure the height of a mountain is that you neither refer to sea level nor measure the distance from the center to its summit but you simply measure the total length of the mountain that is, from its base to its height. There is a mountain called Mauna Kea in the American state of Hawaii. It is only 4,200 meters above sea level, which is half the height of Mount Everest. This mountain is located in the Atlantic Ocean and interestingly most of Mauna Kea is under the sea.

If you add this part and measure the height of this mountain from the base to the top then this mountain is 10,211 meters tall while in comparison, the height of Mount Everest from the base to the top is only 4,700 meters. That is if we only measure the total height of the mountain. The highest/tallest mountain is Mauna Kea. If we talk about the mountains of Pakistan, the highest peak of Pakistan is K-2. Its height is 8,611 meters above sea level. It is the second highest peak in the world after Everest in reference to sea level.

Nanga Parbat of the Pakistani Himalayan range is of great importance worldwide. Its height is 8,126 meters above sea level, but according to experts. Its height increases every year by 0.27 inches and it will overtake Mount Everest to become the highest peak in the world after about 2.5 lacs years from today. The highest peak in the world is Everest, Chimborazo, or Mauna Kea, it is up to you which criteria suit you best.

Tell us in the comments which method you think is the best way to measure the height of a mountain: above sea level, to measure the distance from the center of the earth, or just to measure the total height of the mountain itself.