The Debunker: Ken Jennings vs. Map Myths, Part 1

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Every Tuesday, we ask Jeopardy! know-it-all Ken Jennings to blow our minds by debunking a cherished myth that “everybody knows” — even though it’s dead wrong. Since Ken’s new book Maphead, about geography nerds, hits shelves September 20, we pulled him away from the gazetteer long enough for him to demolish four incredibly wrong “facts” about geography.

Map Myth #1: Mount Everest Is the Highest Point on Earth.

It’s not? you whisper, heartbroken, wondering what little technicality you’ve missed. So what is the highest place on Earth? Another mountain? Some futuristic Asian skyscraper from a Mission: Impossible movie? Three rows back at a Phish concert?

Well, here’s the catch about the Earth: it’s not a sphere. (Bonus Debunker!) Because of its rotation, the Earth is more or less like an adult human: it bulges more in the middle as time goes by. Geodesists—people who study the shape of the Earth—call it an “oblate spheroid.” Long story short: the Earth is about 25 miles “wider” at the Equator than it is “tall” at the poles, which means that equatorial mountains extend way further into space than more northerly ones like Everest. In fact, the peak of Mount Chimborazo, an Andean stratovolcano that happens to be the highest point of Ecuador, is over a mile further from the center of the Earth than Everest is.

Ah, you say, nodding wisely. So Mount Everest may not be the technical “highest point,” but it is still the planet’s tallest mountain. Not so fast! Hawaii’s Mauna Kea volcano is 33,000 feet tall, almost a mile taller than Everest. So why don’t we hear about rugged adventurers and their Sherpas scaling snowy Mauna Kea? Because the base of Mauna Kea sits not on a lofty plateau, but on the floor of the Pacific Ocean. Well over half its height is wasted underwater, where only exotic Hawaiian fish with hard-to-pronounce names can appreciate it.

So what is Everest? Just the Earth’s tallest mountain above sea level, which is nothing to sneeze at. And the summit is still rising at the rate of 3-5 millimeters a year as due to plate tectonics. This means, in essence, that each new climber who summits Everest is setting a new altitude record. (If you ignore that killjoy Chimborazo, of course.)

Quick Quiz: Sir Edmund Hillary, the first person to summit Mount Everest, appears on what nation’s five-dollar bill (as shown above)?

Ken Jennings is the author of Brainiac, Ken Jennings’s Trivia Almanac, and the forthcoming Maphead. Follow him at ken-jennings.com or on Twitter as @KenJennings.

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