What is the heaviest mountain on earth?

Answer 1

The question of heaviest mountain on Earth is, by its nature, a question that is impossible to answer with perfect precision. It is difficult to determine what point constitutes the beginning of a mountain as well as how deep to count material as part of the mountain's mass.

Mt. Everest is not the heaviest mountain on Earth according to popular consensus because it sits on the Tibetan Plateau and is considered to have a base above 15,000 ft.

Mauna Loa on the Big Island of Hawaii is the most common answer as it is assumed by most experts to be the most voluminous mountain on Earth. It has a surface that covers thousands of square miles and is believed to rise from a base thousands of feet below the ocean.

Denali is also a contender for the title. Although it is not as high as Everest, it has an enormous mass and begins just above sea level. Mt. Logan in Canada is also a contender as it is thought to have the largest circumference of any continental (not part of an island like Mauna Loa) mountain on Earth.