Could a mountain extend into space?

Could a mountain extend into space?

Yes, but not on Earth. On a planet or moon with no atmosphere, you could have a very low orbit- say 1 km above ‘average elevation’. It is easy to have a mountain tall enough to stick up into this orbit.

Is there a limit to how tall a mountain can be?

Simple physics says, no mountain can be higher than 15000 m. Google it, you will get the physics. The maximum height that can be reached depends on the strength of the material and gravity. As gravity pulls the mountain down , the material strength tries to prevent the structure from from being pulled down.

What kind of atmosphere prevails at the top of mountain?

The top of Mount Everest sits in the upper troposphere, a part of the atmosphere where winds travelling at 110 km an hour can pummel climbers. This region is also affected by jet streaks, extra fast bursts of wind within the jet streams that race around the Earth from west to east.

How many miles thick is the Earth’s atmosphere?

The Earth’s atmosphere is an extremely thin sheet of air extending from the surface of the Earth to the edge of space. The Earth is a sphere with a roughly 8000 mile diameter; the thickness of the atmosphere is about 60 miles.

Is there any air on top of Mount Everest?

Contrary to popular belief, the percentage of oxygen in the air doesn’t change significantly with altitude up to about 85km from the earth! At sea level, oxygen comprises approximately 23\% the air by weight and on the summit of Mount Everest it still comprises 23\% of the air.

How high is the highest point on earth in feet?

Highest mountain on Earth?

• Mount Everest’s peak is the highest altitude above mean sea level at 29,029 feet [8,848 meters].
• Mount Chimborazo’s peak is the furthest point on Earth from Earth’s center.
• Mauna Kea is the tallest mountain from base to peak at more than 33,500 feet [10,210 meters].

What limits the height of the highest mountains on Earth?

The highest mountain is limited by the strength of rock; a mountain of height h will exert pressure ρ g h on the rock at the base. So assuming earthlike density and rock strength the possible height scales inversely with gravity: a 2G world would have maximal mountains half as tall as Earth, a 1/2 G world can maintain twice as tall mountains.

Why don’t we have mountains on lower gravity planets?

Much higher mountains can be achieved on lower gravity worlds, but lower gravity worlds would not tend to be able to hold onto their atmospheres close into the sun where there is a lot of thermal energy to help it leak away into space.

How high would the tallest mountain be in a 1/g low gravity world?

So the 1/G G low gravity world will have an atmosphere declining in pressure half as fast as Earth. This means that the top of the tallest mountain, unless the rock composition is vastly different, will tend to be about one scale height above the ground. It will be high up in the atmosphere but not above it.

How does a mountain grow so tall?

The mountain grows by deposition, day by day, in a crystallised profile that allows it to grow so tall. Finally, you can push it even higher by relaxing the specification that the mountain is homogeneous. Maybe it’s a combination of the above mechanisms.