"List of tallest mountains on Earth" redirects here. For mountains listed by height from sea level, see
List of highest mountains on Earth.
Chart showing the relationship between the 100 peaks with highest prominence in the world. (In the
SVG version, hover over a peak to highlight its parent(s) and click it to view its article.)
The prominence of a peak is the minimum height of climb to the summit on any route from a higher peak, or from sea level if there is no higher peak. The lowest point on that route is the
col.
For full definitions and explanations of topographic prominence, key col, and parent, see
topographic prominence. In particular, the different definitions of the parent of a peak are addressed at length in that article. Height on the other hand simply means elevation of the summit above sea level.
Regarding parents, the prominence parent of peak A can be found by dividing the island or region in question into territories, by tracing the runoff from the key col (
mountain pass) of every peak that is more prominent than peak A. The parent is the peak whose territory peak A resides in.
The encirclement parent is found by tracing the contour below peak A's key col and picking the highest mountain in that region. This is easier to determine than the prominence parent; however, it tends to give non-intuitive results for peaks with very low cols such as Jabal Shams which is #110 in the list.
Either sort of parent of a typical very high-prominence peak such as
Denali will lie far away from the peak itself, reflecting the independence of the peak.
Most sources (and the table below) define no parent for island and landmass highpoints; others treat Mount Everest as the parent of every such peak with the
world ocean as the "key col".
The following table lists the Earth's 125 most topographically prominent summits. Of these,
Indonesia has the most, with 13. Close behind it are
China and the
United States with 12.
The 125 most topographically prominent summits on Earth
The list of peaks that follows is not complete, but the peaks are all notable. Island high points (whose prominence is equal to their elevation) can be found at the
List of islands by highest point; hence most are not included below. Some well-known peaks listed here do not score highly by prominence.
All peaks with a prominence of more than 1,500 metres rank as an
Ultra. For a complete listing of all 1,524 peaks with prominence greater than this level, see the
lists of Ultras.
*.^ By convention, cols created by human activity are not counted. Therefore, the
Suez,
Panama and other canals are ignored in these calculations. Cuts that lower the natural elevations of mountain passes are also ignored.[16] Towers, monuments and similar on the peaks are also ignored.
World top 50 most prominent peaks, originally compiled by David Metzler and Eberhard Jurgalski, and updated with the help of others as new elevation information, especially
SRTM, has become available.
"List of tallest mountains on Earth" redirects here. For mountains listed by height from sea level, see
List of highest mountains on Earth.
Chart showing the relationship between the 100 peaks with highest prominence in the world. (In the
SVG version, hover over a peak to highlight its parent(s) and click it to view its article.)
The prominence of a peak is the minimum height of climb to the summit on any route from a higher peak, or from sea level if there is no higher peak. The lowest point on that route is the
col.
For full definitions and explanations of topographic prominence, key col, and parent, see
topographic prominence. In particular, the different definitions of the parent of a peak are addressed at length in that article. Height on the other hand simply means elevation of the summit above sea level.
Regarding parents, the prominence parent of peak A can be found by dividing the island or region in question into territories, by tracing the runoff from the key col (
mountain pass) of every peak that is more prominent than peak A. The parent is the peak whose territory peak A resides in.
The encirclement parent is found by tracing the contour below peak A's key col and picking the highest mountain in that region. This is easier to determine than the prominence parent; however, it tends to give non-intuitive results for peaks with very low cols such as Jabal Shams which is #110 in the list.
Either sort of parent of a typical very high-prominence peak such as
Denali will lie far away from the peak itself, reflecting the independence of the peak.
Most sources (and the table below) define no parent for island and landmass highpoints; others treat Mount Everest as the parent of every such peak with the
world ocean as the "key col".
The following table lists the Earth's 125 most topographically prominent summits. Of these,
Indonesia has the most, with 13. Close behind it are
China and the
United States with 12.
The 125 most topographically prominent summits on Earth
The list of peaks that follows is not complete, but the peaks are all notable. Island high points (whose prominence is equal to their elevation) can be found at the
List of islands by highest point; hence most are not included below. Some well-known peaks listed here do not score highly by prominence.
All peaks with a prominence of more than 1,500 metres rank as an
Ultra. For a complete listing of all 1,524 peaks with prominence greater than this level, see the
lists of Ultras.
*.^ By convention, cols created by human activity are not counted. Therefore, the
Suez,
Panama and other canals are ignored in these calculations. Cuts that lower the natural elevations of mountain passes are also ignored.[16] Towers, monuments and similar on the peaks are also ignored.
World top 50 most prominent peaks, originally compiled by David Metzler and Eberhard Jurgalski, and updated with the help of others as new elevation information, especially
SRTM, has become available.