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There are three different ways to measure the "highest mountain in the world," and as a result, three different mountains can claim the title for different reasons.

1. Summit highest above sea level

The summit highest above sea level is that of Mount Everest in the Himalayas, at 8850 meters. (K2 in the Karakoram range is second, at 8611 meters.)

2. Summit highest above base of mountain

The summit highest above the base of the mountain it's on is that of Mauna Kea in Hawaii. Although the mountain reaches only 4205 meters above sea level, its base is on the mid-Pacific seafloor, for a total top-to-bottom height of 10203 meters.

3. Summit furthest from center of the Earth

Because the Earth bulges at the equator, and is not a perfect sphere, mountains located very close to the equator will have summits significantly further from the Earth's center than those located further north. This puts the 6267-meter summit of Chimborazo in Ecuador 2100 meters further from the Earth's center than the summit of Everest. (Nevado Huascaran in Peru is in a near-tie with Chimborazo, although more accurate surveys may rank it merely a close second.)

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