Big Lizards:Blog:Entry “Mine's Bigger Than Yours, but Theirs Is Bigger Than Anybody's!”

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May 28, 2009

Mine's Bigger Than Yours, but Theirs Is Bigger Than Anybody's!

Hatched by Dafydd

An open letter to John Hinderaker of Power Line, in response to his post High Points, discussing which state has the lowest highest elevation... that is, the state of the United States whose highest point is the lowest of any state:

Dear John;

I know you were looking for the lowest high point; but I can't resist bragging that my own California has both the lowest low point in North America -- Badwater, a depression within the depression of Death Valley (282' below sea level) -- and also the highest high point in the lower 48 -- Mt. Whitney (14,505'); it's 65' taller than the tallest peak of the Rocky Mountains (Mt. Elbert, 14,440').

[This paragraph is corrected; there are other mountains in Alaska that are taller than Whitney. Hat tip to commenter Brotio.] ~~The only point in the United States that is taller~~ The only state in the United States whose high point is higher than California's is Alaska; Alaska's Mt. McKinley, a.k.a. Denali, is 20,320'... the highest mountain peak in North America.

The question, "what is the tallest mountain on Earth?" is interesting because of its essential ambiguity; depending on what the meaning of "tallest" is, there are three possible answers:

Mt. Everest, which boasts an elevation of 29,028' above mean sea level (MSL), but rises only about 12,000' from its surrounding plain.

Mount Chimborazo, in the Andes (Ecuador); although its summit is only 20,564' above MSL, it happens to be the point on the Earth's surface farthest from the Earth's center (due to the equatorial bulge) -- 3,968 miles, 1.3 miles more than the distance from the peak of Mt. Everest to the Earth's center.

Mauna Kea, the tallest peak on the Big Island (Hawaii), is the mountain that rises the farthest from the base on which it sits; but since Mauna Kea's base is of course beneath the Pacific ocean (that's why it's an "island"), it doesn't seem as tall, rising only 13,803' above MSL. However, it rises 33,476' (!) above its base in the surrounding (subaqueous) plain.

But we're being so geocentric... If we expand our search to the tallest known mountain in the solar system, that would be Olympus Mons on Mars, which soars a truly majestic 88,600' (16.7 miles, yow!) above the mean surface level of Mars... the measurement that substitutes for MSL, as Mars hasn't any "S." (No liquid water, at least not aboveground, because the Martian atmosphere is so thin that the boiling temperature of water is below the freezing temperature; therefore water can only exist as ice or vapor on Mars.)

So the next time you go bragging about the looming mountains of Minnesota (highest elevation: Eagle Mountain, 2,301' above MSL), look upon the Ozymandian Olympus Mons, ye Mighty, and despair.

Hatched by Dafydd on this day, May 28, 2009, at the time of 11:45 PM

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Comments

The following hissed in response by: Steven Den Beste

Olympus Mons is so tall that it's top is outside the atmosphere of Mars.

The above hissed in response by: Steven Den Beste at May 31, 2009 5:15 AM

The following hissed in response by: brotio

While we're all getting high, we may as well know that the lowest point in Colorado is higher than the highest point of eighteen other states, and that all 53 of the mountains in the Rocky Mountains that reach, or exceed 14,000 feet are in Colorado; and only Alaska (19), California (14), Colorado (53), and Washington (3) have peaks that exceed 14,000 feet.

Also, Colorado, Wyoming, and Utah are the only States with mean elevations above 6000 feet (6800,6700, and 6100, respectively).

The above hissed in response by: brotio at May 31, 2009 9:05 PM

The following hissed in response by: brotio

Oh, and a slight correction (although I know what you meant): The sixteen highest peaks in the US are in Alaska. Mt Whitney is the seventeenth-highest.

The above hissed in response by: brotio at May 31, 2009 9:09 PM

The following hissed in response by: Dafydd ab Hugh

Brotio:

I meant what I said, and I said what I meant. I said that Mr. Whitney was the highest peak "in the lower 48."

Isn't it?

Dafydd

The above hissed in response by: Dafydd ab Hugh at May 31, 2009 10:48 PM

The following hissed in response by: brotio

"The only point in the United States that is taller is of course Alaska's Mt. McKinley, a.k.a. Denali, at 20,320'..."

Daffyd,

That was the part I was correcting. I assumed you to mean that the only state whose highest point is higher than Whitney, is Alaska. But that isn't what you wrote :)

The above hissed in response by: brotio at June 1, 2009 10:03 PM

The following hissed in response by: Dafydd ab Hugh

Britio:

Oh, I see. No, I meant there was no mountain in the United States taller than Mt. Whitney other than Mt. McKinley, which would appear to be erroneous. I'll correct it to what you said.

Dafydd

The above hissed in response by: Dafydd ab Hugh at June 2, 2009 5:02 AM