Mondo Knows Facts
Mauna Kea is the tallest mountain on Earth measured from base to peak
Measured from its underwater base on the ocean floor, Mauna Kea stands over ten thousand metres tall.
While its summit reaches 4,207 metres above sea level in Hawaii, more than half of the volcano sits submerged beneath the Pacific Ocean. Because the peak rises above forty per cent of Earth's atmosphere with minimal light pollution, it hosts some of the world's premier astronomical telescopes. It is a dormant shield volcano.
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Tags: mauna kea, hawaii, volcanoes, mountains
Mauna Kea is the tallest mountain on Earth measured from base to peak: the short answers
- Where does this come from, and can I check it?
- Measured from its underwater base on the ocean floor, Mauna Kea stands over ten thousand metres tall. The figure is taken from USGS, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.
- Is this really a world geography fact?
- Yes. It sits on the World Geography shelf, one of 1,090 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.
- What else can I read about it?
- The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.