Why the world's highest mountain is not actually Mount Everest

Nature · Published 30 September 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: While Everest claims the title for height above sea level, it is not the point on Earth furthest from the planet's center. That distinction belongs to Chimborazo, an Ecuadorian stratovolcano. Because Earth bulges at the equator, this Andean peak sits significantly further out into space than any other mountain.

Chimborazo reaches an elevation of 6,263 meters above sea level, which is well below the 8,849 meters of Mount Everest. However, the Earth is an oblate spheroid, thicker at the equator than at the poles. Because Chimborazo is located just one degree south of the equator, its summit is 6,384.4 kilometers from the Earth's center. This makes it 2.1 kilometers further from the core than the summit of Everest, which sits at a higher latitude.

This unique geometry also influences the local physics of the mountain. Due to the combination of its distance from the Earth's center and the centrifugal force generated by the planet's rotation, gravity at the summit of Chimborazo is about one percent weaker than at the point of maximum gravitational pull. Despite this, it is not the place with the absolute smallest gravitational force on Earth; that title belongs to the summit of Huascarán in Peru, due to local gravity anomalies.

Beyond its geodetic significance, Chimborazo is an inactive stratovolcano that last erupted around 550 AD. It serves as a vital water source for the surrounding provinces, though its glaciers are currently retreating due to a combination of climate change and ash fall from the nearby active volcano, Tungurahua. The mountain is also a cultural icon, appearing in the poetry of Simón Bolívar and Walter J. Turner, and it remains a challenging destination for mountaineers, with the first successful summit recorded by Edward Whymper in 1880.

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