It seems like a 8,848 - meter mount would be sluttish to spot , but it ’s oddly challenge to see Mount Everest from a few hundred kilometers higher in elevation . The famous mountain is seeable in each of these photos from the International Space Station , but can you find it ?
December 2014 . Image credit : NASA / Butch Wilmore
Mount Everest is inarguablythe tallest mountain on the planetwhen measured strictly as an elevation above ocean spirit level , but the peak gets less clearly - make out calculate on how you quantify :
From base - to - peak , the gentle roundness of Mauna Kea outrank as the tallest mountain at 10,203 m , yet less than half peek above the wave for a skimpy 4,207 m above ocean level .
Nested in a stove of mountain on a bulging plateau , Everest is just the tallest amongst giants : it takes wander over to Alaska ’s Mount McKinley or Africa ’s Kilimanjaro to find the mountain that looms most menacingly above the surrounding terrain ( and deciding how to measure what are environs versus foothill will likely lead to C between scrapping geologic survey ) .
Arguing which mountain will expect you farthest from the center of the Earth adds on another bed of complication : ournot - so - spherical planetfeatures an equatorial gibbosity that boosts either Peru ’s Huascarán or Ecuador’sChimborazointo the top time slot for that particular measure of “ tallest . ”
December 2014 . trope recognition : NASA / Butch Wilmore
When sticking to the traditional consummate elevation as measure out above sea level , while Mount Everest is clearly the tallest of mountains , its exact height is subject to a mo more finickiness . The mountain stretches somewhere between 8,84o and 8,850 meters above sea level . The official tiptop of 8,848 meters was surveyed by geometry and angles using transit and include snowpack , while a later survey using the same technique park the height at 8,844.43 meters without snowpack . In yet another survey attempt , a GPS unit nabbed the rock-and-roll height at 8,850 meters with an additional one - meter snowpack . To make it all even more confusing , Mount Everest is in an active tectonic zone , so that superlative keeps on alter .
December 2014 . Image credit : NASA / Butch Wilmor
Mount Everestis virtually - smothered in the exuberant height of surrounding peaks as the entire Himalayan tidy sum range climb towards the sky . The area owes its voluptuous heights to the inexorable mechanics of plate tectonics : the Indian Plate has been crash into the Eurasiatic Plate for 50 million year , piling continental plate into rocky iceberg with roots extending even deeper into the crust than the lot chain of mountains and Tibetan plateau climb above the surrounding topography .
November 2003 . look-alike credit : NASA . take more : Earth Observatory
As part of maintaining spatial knowingness and orient their observations , astronaut train to be able-bodied to quickly identify Mount Everest as it derive into aspect . This is n’t always easy , particularly when racing around the satellite fifteen times a daytime and seeing the mountain in all sorts of conditions , C. P. Snow coverage , and tripping angle , so it necessitate a lot of practice .
October 2011 . Image credit : NASA . study more : Earth lookout station
If you need a hint to feel the strangely - problematic Everest , here ’s more view of the stunning mountain as seen by astronauts on the International Space Station over the years :
January 2004 . effigy credit : NASA
October 1993 . Read more : Earth Observatory . Image credit : NASA[left ] ; March 2002.Earth Observatory . double credit : NASA[right ]
January 2011 . Image credit : NASA . say more : NASA Image of the twenty-four hour period
March 1996 . Image quotation : NASA
Butch WilmoreMount EverestPuzzle
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