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Cecil's Answer for Week 12

Q: Just outside one of the Greatest Places is a mountain whose top is the furthest point from the center of the earth. Which place and what mountain?

 

 

Answer: 'It is Mt. Chimborazo in Amazonia.'

Just outside of western Amazonia, in the Andes Mountains of Equador, is Mt. Chimborazo. Its highest point is 20,702 feet.

Mt. Chimborazo (photo by Pete Hall)


Mt. Everest

Info: Remember that the equatorial diameter of the earth is 27 miles greater than its polar diameter, so the peak of Mt. Chimbarazo, almost on the equator, is further from the center of the earth than Mt. Everest by 6,890 feet, even though Mt. Everest is higher above sea level at 29,028 feet.

A diagram illustrating the mountains' distance from the center of the  Earth.

 

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