“It is not Everest and not K2, as one might think.”, — write: www.unian.ua
It is not Everest and not K2, as one might think.
This mountain is much lower than Everest / Dick Culbert / wikimedia.orgMount Everest is considered the highest point on the planet Earth, but in reality everything is a little more complicated. While Everest is the undisputed king of heights by many measures, it has a humble rival in Ecuador, which is actually closer to the stars and farther from the Earth’s core.
According to IFScience, this is Chimborazo, an inactive volcano in the Andes, whose height is 6,268 meters above sea level.
This is tiny compared to other giant mountains such as Everest (8,849 meters) or K2 (8,611 meters). In fact, Chimborazo isn’t even the highest mountain in this mountainous part of South America; it is the 37th highest mountain in the Andes.
However, the peak of Chimborazo is technically closer to the Sun due to Earth’s equatorial bulge.
As IFScience explains, our planet is actually a flattened spheroid. As the Earth rotates, centrifugal force causes it to “bulge out” at the center, making the planet thicker near the equator than at the poles.
In view of this, Everest is at a disadvantage, as it is located quite far from the equator, on the border between Nepal and China at 28° north latitude. On the other hand, Chimborazo is located almost exactly on the equator, only 1° south latitude, very close to the “thickest” part of the globe. This also means that Chimborazo is the farthest point on Earth from the center of the planet.
So, in order to proudly declare: “I’m on top of the world!”, without necessarily conquering Everest, there is a slightly simpler way. Climbing Everest usually requires a 10-day trek to base camp, six weeks of acclimatization, and a grueling seven- to nine-day ascent to the summit. Meanwhile, Chimborazo can be climbed in about two weeks, with the final ascent only taking a day or two once the climber gets used to the altitude.
Previously, UNIAN also talked about the deepest place on Earth – the Mariana Trench.
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