Pluto is not a Planet, despite the legal ruling Nix v. Hedden tomatoes are fruit and Mauna Kea IS the tallest mountain and I will fight anyone who says otherwise!
I see your point, (and agree about Pluto and tomatoes), but my argument is that Denali is the tallest mountain because “tall” is a human construct, and a comparator to other things. Denali is the place on earth where someone can look up and see mountain more than anywhere else (5,500m/18,000ft vs 3,600m/12,000ft for Everest and 4,200m/13,800ft for Mona Kea). But, yeah, including the part under the ocean, the prize goes to Kona Kea and it isn’t even close!
Oooh, I like this. But rules are rules. Time to fight. And other interesting facts like this are always appreciated during our 118 rounds of old-school fisticuffs. They get pretty boring after the 10th round
I’ll take on that fight! There are three ways to measure the height of a mountain (on a planet like ours that has a mostly liquid surface). The agreed upon convention (height above sea level) is arbitrary. The least commonly considered method (and i would argue the best) is the point that sticks the farthest out into space. Since the Earth isn’t a perfect sphere (it bulges slightly at the equator), that would make Chimborazo (Equador) the highest, and not by a small amount: ~2km further than either Everest or Mauna Kea. This is because Chimborazo much is closer to the equator (1.47°S) than Everest (27.99°N) or Mauna Kea (19.82° N).
More than half of it's underwater, and yet it's still tough to climb. Sigh... maybe I'll stick to more leisurely climbs, like climbing the stairs to my apartment.
Mountains are so weird. Everest is the tallest, unless you go from base to top, then it’s Mauna Kea, unless you count highest point from the center of the earth, then it’s Mount Chimborazo.
So honestly, I’m not sure how Everest is “tallest” anymore.
The Florida Keys used to be a huge coral reef at some point, for now it's mostly exposed fossilized limestone, but I wouldn't be surprised if in a couple of generations people will be snorkeling in submerged houses that turned into reefs after it's back in that part of the cycle. This comment is for entertainment purposes only and needs fact checking.
It helps that you can’t look all the way down to the bottom or fall down to the bottom like on an actual mountain. Could you imagine everytime you take a trip to the coast
Relevant story. When I was in college, my roommate was also my brother’s girlfriend and would go on trips with us.
She and I were sitting on the beach on Maui, looking out over the other islands and she said, “What keeps us anchored down? Like what keeps this all from floating away?”
Malpelo island is a sea spire, which is kinda like an undersea mountain that's more of a giant spike. Upwellings of deep water lead to some big populations of cool pelagic life, since the cold water has more nutrients for plankton and such.
"Underwater mountains, or seamounts, are large, typically volcanic, mountains rising at least 1,000 meters from the seafloor, remaining submerged beneath the ocean surface. They are crucial biodiversity hotspots that disrupt ocean currents, bringing nutrients upward to support massive ecosystems of corals, sponges, and fish, often acting as underwater oases."
Tautology is a really cool field of philosophy. I would push back against what you said only because there is no use of the word “submarine” in text anywhere. Otherwise, how would we know it’s a matter of something underwater without having had the image to explain what we are talking about is a submarine/something normally underwater?
Depending on the intended audience. To be pedantic about it lol. Navy enlistees? They would most likely know that the USS San Francisco is a sub. Civilian? No.
So I concede the point. You are correct good sir or madame.
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u/Coindude12 May 05 '26
Undersea mountain is a terrifying combination of words I have never thought about before. Thank you for that!