> > > Uh, Mount McKinley. As in, people who don't
> > >know any better call the highest mountain in N.
> > >America / second highest mountain in the world
> > >McKinley instead of Denali.
> >
> > It's the highest mountain in North America, but unless they've redone the measurements recently, it's not the second highest mountain in the world. K2, in the Himalayas, is second only to Everest. In fact, there was a recent debate as to whether K2 might actually be taller. They sent scientists up K2 and Everest with GPS systems to remeasure their heights, and confirmed that Everest was still the tallest in the world.
> >
> > But it all depends on how you are measuring. Everest is the tallest mountain in the world as measured from sea level. If you measure the height from the center of the Earth, Mt. Kilimanjaro in Africa is the tallest, because it is near the Equator (and the Earth naturally bulges at the equator).

Now that's interesting. For some reason we had the impression that Kilimanjaro couldn't possibly be that high because "it has no snow," but that's not true. I found an Ernest Hemingway reference to the mountain called "The Snows of Kilimanjaro", and it had this interesting passage:

/ / Kilimanjaro is a snow covered mountain 19,710
/ / feet high, and is said to be the highest
/ / mountain in Africa. Its western summit is
/ / called by the Masai "Ngāje Ngāi", the House of
/ / God. Close to the western summit / there is the
/ / dried and frozen carcass of a leopard. No one
/ / has explained what the leopard was seeking at
/ / that altitude.

Ok, aside from that bit being a Ernest cautionary tale and all, I thought the passage was pretty neat...


> Measured from the ocean floor, Mauna Kea is tallest (it sticks all the way up from the bottom of the ocean, after all). Denali claims the title if you measure the height of the mountain from the floor of the valley below it.

Heh. You know, Dave, my husband was once a geologist in another lifetime: he got kind of snooty over your use of the term "tallest" to really mean "highest". No, I don't know what the difference is. He also muttered something about only a geologist would ever want to measure mountain height from the center of the earth, or from the bottom of the ocean floor.


> > Since I can't put in two links in the "Link" box, here is another link for a listing of the highest mountains int he world:
> >
> > http://www.slip.net/~scaruffi/travel/tallest.html
>
> And just to be silly about it, Mt Cook is not only the highest mountain in New Zealand, but the fastest shrinking. It had an avalanche a few years ago that knocked ten metres off its summit. I haven't ever climbed it, I'm going to wait for another few avalanches so it'll take less time.
>
> Brunnen-"K2! I *knew* it wasn't Denali!"G

Brunnen-G, what's the native Maori name for New Zealand, anyway?!