List of highest mountains on Earth

Aerial view of Mount Everest from the south. The peak rises over Lhotse, while Nuptse is the ridge on the left.

There are at least 109 mountains on Earth with elevations greater than 7,200 metres (23,622 ft) above sea level. The vast majority of these mountains are located on the edge of the Indian subcontinent and Tibet, with some peaks in Central Asia. Only those summits are included that, by an objective measure, may be considered individual mountains as opposed to subsidiary peaks.

Considerations

Figure demonstrating the concept of topographic prominence: The prominence of a peak is the height of the peak’s summit above the lowest contour line encircling it and no higher summit. For example, vertical arrows show the topographic prominence of three peaks on an island. A dotted horizontal line links each peak (except the highest) to its key col.

The dividing line between a mountain with multiple peaks and separate mountains is not always clear (see also Highest unclimbed mountain). A popular and intuitive way to distinguish mountains from subsidiary peaks is by their height above the highest saddle connecting it to a higher summit, a measure called topographic prominence or re-ascent (the higher summit is called the "parent peak"). A common definition of a mountain is a summit with 300 m (980 ft) prominence. Alternatively, a relative prominence (prominence/height) is used (usually 7–8%) to reflect that in higher mountain ranges everything is on a larger scale. The table below lists the highest 100 summits with at least 500 m (1,640 ft) prominence, approximating a 7% relative prominence. A drawback of a prominence-based list is that it may exclude well-known or spectacular mountains that are connected via a high ridge to a taller summit, such as Eiger or Nuptse. A few such peaks and mountains with nearly sufficient prominence are included but not numbered in this list.

It is very unlikely that all given heights are correct to the nearest metre; indeed, the sea level is often problematic to define when a mountain is remote from the sea. Different sources often differ by many metres, and the heights given below may well differ from those elsewhere in this encyclopedia. As an extreme example, Ulugh Muztagh on the north Tibetan Plateau is often listed as 7,723 m (25,338 ft) to 7,754 m (25,440 ft), but appears to be only 6,973 m (22,877 ft) to 6,987 m (22,923 ft). Some mountains differ by > 100 m (330 ft) on different maps, while even very thorough current measurements of Mount Everest range from 8,840 m (29,003 ft) to 8,850 m (29,035 ft). These discrepancies serve to emphasize the uncertainties in the listed heights.

Though some parts of the world, especially the most mountainous parts, have never been thoroughly mapped, it is unlikely that any mountains this high have been overlooked, because synthetic aperture radar can and has been used to measure elevations of most otherwise inaccessible places. Still, heights and/or prominences may be revised, so that the order of the list may change and even "new" mountains could enter the list over time. To be safe, the list has been extended to include all 7,200 m (23,622 ft) peaks.

The highest mountains above sea level are generally not the highest above the surrounding terrain. There is no precise definition of surrounding base, but Denali, Mount Kilimanjaro and Nanga Parbat are possible candidates for the tallest mountain on land by this measure. The bases of mountain islands are below sea level, and given this consideration Mauna Kea (4,207 m (13,802 ft) above sea level) is the world's tallest mountain and volcano, rising about 10,203 m (33,474 ft) from the Pacific Ocean floor. Ojos del Salado has the greatest rise on Earth—13,420 m (44,029 ft) from the summit to the bottom of the Atacama Trench about 560 km (350 mi) away, though most of this rise is not part of the mountain.

The highest mountains are also not generally the most voluminous. Mauna Loa (4,169 m or 13,678 ft) is the largest mountain on Earth in terms of base area (about 2,000 sq mi or 5,200 km²) and volume (about 10,000 cu mi or 42,000 km³), although, due to the intergrade of lava from Kilauea, Hualalai and Mauna Kea, the volume can only be estimated based on surface area and height of the edifice. Mt. Kilimanjaro is the largest non-shield volcano in terms of both base area (245 sq mi or 635 km²) and volume (1,150 cu mi or 4,793 km³). Mount Logan is the largest non-volcanic mountain in base area (120 sq mi or 311 km²).

The highest mountains above sea level are also not those with peaks farthest from the centre of the Earth, because the figure of the Earth is not spherical. Sea level closer to the equator is several kilometres farther from the centre of the Earth. The summit of Chimborazo, Ecuador's tallest mountain, is usually considered to be the farthest point from the Earth's centre, although the southern summit of Peru's tallest mountain, Huascarán, is another contender.^[1] Both have elevations above sea level more than 2 km less than that of Everest.

Geographical distribution

Almost all mountains in the list are located in the Himalaya and Karakoram ranges to the south and west of the Tibetan plateau. In fact, all 7,000 m (23,000 ft) peaks in the world are located in the centre of Asia (East Asia, Central Asia and South Asia) in a rectangle edged by Noshaq (7,492 m or 24,580 ft) on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border in the West, Jengish Chokusu, (Tuōmù'ěr Fēng) (7,439 m or 24,406 ft) on the Kyrgyzstan – Xinjiang border to the North, Gongga Shan (Minya Konka) (7,556 m or 24,790 ft) in Sichuan to the East, and Kabru (7,412 m or 24,318 ft) on the Sikkim (India) – Nepal border to the South.

The highest mountain outside of Asia is Aconcagua (6,962 m or 22,841 ft), which one list ranks 189th in the world amongst mountains with a 500 m or 1,640 ft prominence cutoff.^[2]

List

Data plots

By country

The following graph ranks the countries by number of mountain peaks over 7,200 metres (23,622 ft) above sea level. Note that 38 peaks are on de facto borders and two (Jongsong Peak and Sia Kangri) are on tripoints.

Gallery

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  1. The summit of Mount Everest, the highest point on Earth
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  2. K2, the highest summit of the Karakoram
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  3. Kangchenjunga, the second-highest mountain of the Himalaya
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  4. Lhotse, the third-highest mountain of the Himalaya
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  5. Makalu in the Himalaya
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  6. Cho Oyu in the Himalaya
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  7. Dhaulagiri in the Himalaya
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  8. Manaslu in the Himalaya
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  9. Nanga Parbat in the Himalaya
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  10. Annapurna I in the Himalaya
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  11. Gasherbrum I, the second-highest mountain of the Karakoram
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  12. Broad Peak, the third-highest mountain of the Karakoram
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  13. Gasherbrum II in the Karakoram
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  14. Shishapangma in the Himalaya

See also

Notes

References

Sources

• Desheng, Mi (1990s). "The Maps of Snow Mountains in China". Chinese Academy of Science.
• Finnish Meteorological Inst. (1990s). Nepal Topographic Maps. Nepalese Survey Dept.
• "High Mountain Info". High Mountain Sports Magazine (now Climb Magazine). (1990–2005).
• Neate, Jill (1990). High Asia: An Illustrated History of the 7,000 Metre Peaks. Mountaineers Books.
• Some other topographic maps and much from the external links listed above
• Soviet military 1:100,000 topographic maps (most from 1980–1981)

External links

• Summitpost (Currently with detailed description of 30 of the top 100 peaks)
• Prominence lists (including all mountains in the world with >1,450m prominence)
• Alpine Club Himalayan index (Especially informative for history of ascents and location of obscure peaks)
• Discussion of frequently misquoted elevations
• BlankontheMap site on mountains of Northern Kashmir
• Digital elevation data, including all the above peaks and many more worldwide
• Hispar area: expedition reports and maps
• List of highest mountains down to 6750 metres
• Google Earth Community (Google Earth KMZ file of Wikipedia list of highest mountains)