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List of highest mountains
About List of highest mountains

Mount Everest, the world's highest mountain
The following is a 'list of the world's 100+ highest mountains' per height above sea level, all of which are located in Asia. Only those summits are included that, by an objective measure, may be considered individual mountains as opposed to subsidiary peaks.
| Contents |
| Considerations |
| Geographical distribution |
| The list |
| Stem and leaf plot |
| Notes |
| See also |
| External links |
| Sources |
Considerations
The dividing line between a mountain with multiple peaks and separate mountains is not always clear (see Highest unclimbed mountain). A popular and intuitive way to distinguish mountains from subsidiary peaks is by their height above the highest saddle connecting it to a higher summit, a measure called topographic prominence or re-ascent (the higher summit is called the "parent peak"). A common definition of a mountain is a summit with 300 m prominence (1,000 ft; also 10 traditional rope lengths). Alternatively, a relative prominence (prominence/height) is used (usually 7-8%) to reflect that in higher mountain ranges everything is on a larger scale. The table below lists the highest 100 summits with at least 500 m prominence, approximating a 7% relative prominence. A drawback of a prominence-based list is that it may exclude well-known or spectacular mountains that happen to be connected via a high ridge to a taller summit, like the Eiger or Nuptse. A few such peaks and mountains with nearly sufficient prominence are included but not numbered in the list.
It is very unlikely that all the heights given are correct to the nearest metre; indeed, problems of definition of sea level can arise when a mountain is remote from the sea. Different sources often differ by many metres, and the heights given below may well differ from those elsewhere in Wikipedia. As an extreme example, Ulugh Muztagh on the north Tibetan Plateau is often listed as 7,723-7,754 m, but appears to be only 6,973-6,987 m. Many mountains in the Karakoram differ by >100 m on different maps, while even extremely thorough current measurements of Mount Everest range from 8,844 to 8,850 m. These discrepancies serve to emphasise the uncertainties in the listed heights.
Though some parts of the world, especially the most mountainous parts, have never been thoroughly mapped, it is unlikely that any mountains this high have been overlooked, also because satellites can be used to measure altitudes of otherwise inaccessible places. Still, heights and/or prominences may be revised, so that the order of the list may change and even "new" mountains could enter the list over time. To be safe, the list has been extended to include all 7,200 m+ peaks.
By convention, when talking about the world's highest mountains, we always measure above sea level. However, the world's tallest mountains could include those from the sea bed itself, such as mountains in Hawaii. Mauna Kea - rising about 10,200 meters (33,500 feet) from the Pacific Floor, is the world's tallest mountain island.
Geographical distribution
Most mountains in the list are located in the Himalaya and Karakoram ranges, in the border regions of Pakistan, China, Nepal and India. In fact, all 7,000 m peaks in the world are located in Central Asia, in a rectangle edged by Noshaq (7,492 m) on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border in the West, Peak Jengish Chokusu, Tomur Feng) (7,439 m) on the Kyrgyzstan - Xinjiang border to the North, Gongga Shan (Minya Konka) (7,556 m) in Sichuan to the East, and Kabru (7,412 m) on the Sikkim - Nepal border to the South.
The locations of the highest mountains are shown on the composite satellite image of High Asia below. The numbers refer to the ranking in the list. For clarity, lower peaks with labels overlapping higher peaks are left out of the main image. The boxed regions are those with the highest density of summits and are enlarged in two separate images to show all peaks.
The list
Stem and leaf plot
The following is a stem and leaf plot of the above data. Each digit to the right of the line represents one of the hundred mountains, you can see from the plot that there are only 5 mountains above 8,200 meters. Heights are given in tens of meters, and each height is rounded down to the nearest ten meters so e.g. ''88|4'' represents Everest at a height of 8,848 meters, while in the line ''80| 98532'', each digit to the right represents one of five mountains which reach between 8,000 and 8,099 meters.
88 | 4
87 |
86 | 1
85 | 81
84 | 8
83 |
82 |
81 | 8662
80 | 98532
79 | 5433
78 | 9876221Chomo Lonzo
77 | 99885541Tirich MirMolamenqing
76 |
9766411
75 | 77554443311
74 | 99997666553222111HaramoshIstor-o-NalGhent Kangri
73 | 888886655542111Siguang Ri
72 | 99988887766544432211TongshanjiabuMalangutti SarNorin KangLangtang RiKangphu KangSinghi KangriLupghar Sar
Notes
1. For Nepal, the heights indicated on the Nepal Topographic Maps are followed. For China and the Baltoro Karakoram, the heights are those of "The Maps of Snow Mountains in China". For the Hispar Karakoram the heights on a Russian 1:100,000 topo map [1] seem to be more accurate than the customarily quoted heights probably based on US army maps from the 50s [2]. Elsewhere, unless otherwise indicated, heights are those in Jill Neate's "High Asia".
2. This field is complicated by border line disputes. Mountains indicated to be on the Pakistan-Xinjiang border are all in the Kashmir region. Those indicated by "Kashmir" only are in the Siachen glacier area claimed by both Pakistan and India. The Bhutan / Tibet border is also disputed.
3. The region is beautifully covered by Terraserver.com and Google Maps Satellite imagery. Coordinates were established by comparing topographical maps with these satellite images.
4. The prominence data were extracted from a combination of maps and computer aided analysis of NASA's 3" SRTM data. Prominences over 1,450 m were copied from this website.
5. Here defined as the first higher mountain beyond the key saddle with 500 m prominence itself.
6. The number of ascents and failed attempts up to 2004 is extracted from the Alpine Club Himalayan index. These are the number of expeditions (not individuals) that announced their ascent or attempt in a journal. They are probably quite accurate for the rarely climbed peaks (though omissions were noted), but greatly underestimate the number of ascending parties on the easier and/or more popular mountains, like most eight-thousanders. For instance, Mt Everest has been scaled 2,251 times by individuals up to 2004 [3].
7. Given the large differences between multiple "final" measurements of Mt Everest, the traditional 8,848 m is listed.
8. The highest (Eastern) summit of Saser Kangri II has not yet been climbed or attempted. The lower West peak, 2.5 km away, has been climbed in 1984 and twice since.
9. According to the 1996 Himalayan Journal (pp.29-36), the highest point of the Kabru massif (the North summit) was climbed by an Indian Army team in May 1994
10. Chomolhari may be considerably lower than the official 7,315 m, which corresponds to exactly 24,000 ft [4].
11. The height is unknown, but over 7,200 meters on both Chinese and Russian maps of the area.
12. The name and information about this summit was extracted from the May 2003 edition of Japanese Alpine News.
See also
★ List of mountains
★ List of mountain ranges of the world
★ List of peaks by prominence
★ Himalayan Peaks of Uttarakhand
★ Olympus Mons, the largest mountain in the solar system
External links
★ Summitpost (Currently with detailed description of 30 of the top 100 peaks)
★ Prominence lists (including all mountains in the world with >1,450m prominence)
★ Alpine Club Himalayan index (Especially informative for history of ascents and location of obscure peaks)
★ Discussion of frequently misquoted elevations
★ BlankontheMap site on mountains of Northern Kashmir
★ Digital elevation data, including all the above peaks and many more worldwide
★ Hispar area: expedition reports and maps
Sources
★ "High Asia: An Illustrated History of the 7,000 Metre Peaks" by Jill Neate (Mountaineers Books 1990)
★ "The Maps of Snow Mountains in China" by Mi Desheng (Chinese Academy of Science, 1990s)
★ "Nepal Topographic Maps" by the Finnish Meteorological Inst. (Nepalese Survey Dept., 1990s)
★ Soviet military 1:100,000 topographic maps (most from 1980-1981)
★ The "High Mountain Info" section of the "High Mountain Sports Magazine" (1990-2005) (now Climb Magazine)
★ Some other topographic maps and much from the external links listed above.
This article provided by Wikipedia. To edit the contents of this article, click here for original source.
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