Mount Chimborazo: The highest point on Earth  

If someone asked you what is the highest point on the Earth, you would be quick to reply, Mount Everest. But what if we told you that it isn’t?  

Actually, it is Mount Chimborazo's peak in Ecuador, South America, which is the furthest point on Earth. Its summit is over 2,000 metres farther from Earth's centre than Mount Everest's summit. But how is that possible? Hasn’t your geography textbook taught you otherwise?  

Let us clear the confusion. Mount Everest has the highest point on Earth if we check at the sea level. Like this, Mount Chimborazo’s altitude of 6310 metres is far lower than Everest's 8849 metres. But if the highest point on Earth is measured from its centre, then the summit of Chimborazo has the utmost distance. This is because of Earth’s oblate spheroid shape. Earth is thicker at the equator than it is from pole to pole and therefore if you stand at Chimborazo’s peak, you will be closer to space.  

Where is it located? 
So, where can you see this mountain? Well, Mount Chimborazo is an Andean inactive volcano in central Ecuador. It looms so impressively over the country that on a clear day you can spot it from even 140 km away.  

What makes it the highest point?  
Chimborazo is not taller than Everest, in terms of height above sea level. In fact, it is 2,585 metres lower in elevation than Everest. But, its summit is farther from the centre of the Earth than Everest’s due to the equatorial bulge. Chimborazo is 6,384.4 km from the Earth's centre, 2,163 metres farther than the summit of Everest (which is 6,382.3 km from the Earth's centre).  

This is because the Earth is a spheroid, not a perfect sphere. It bulges out a bit around the equator. But how did it bulge at the centre? The combined effects of gravity and rotational centrifugal force (outward force on a mass when it is rotated) have pushed the Earth’s mass outward around its middle. When you are traveling in a bus and the bus takes a turn at the corner, your body is forced to move along with it; that’s the centrifugal force that the Earth feels as it spins on its axis and that makes it bulgy at its centre.  

Chimborazo is an inactive volcano 
Chimborazo is an inactive stratovolcano. Its last known eruption is believed to have occurred around 550 AD. As an inactive volcano, Chimborazo has become covered by many large and thick glaciers.