News - Mountain 4 times taller than world's tallest skyscraper found at ocean’s bottom

Imagine four skyscrapers the height of Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building, stacked on top of one another. That’s almost the height of an underwater mountain newly discovered and mapped by oceanographers led by the Schmidt Ocean Institute in California, reports CNN. Located in the Pacific Ocean 900 miles (1,448 kilometers) off the coast of Chile, the seamount is 1.9 miles (3,109 meters) tall and part of an underwater mountain range that is home to sponge gardens, ancient corals and rare marine species. A team led by the Schmidt Ocean Institute explored the region using the R/V Falkor (too) research vessel during a 28-day expedition that wrapped up this month. The researchers mapped the mountain using a sonar system under the ship’s hull. Oceanographers estimate that there are at least 100,000 seamounts higher than 1,000 meters (3,280 feet) around the world. They provide important habitats for a variety of species. The newly mapped underwater mountain is bigger than Mount Olympus in Greece, which is 2,917 meters (9,570 feet) high; smaller than Japan’s Mount Fuji, which stands 3,776 meters (12,388 feet) tall; and almost quadruple the 830-meter (2,723-foot) height of Burj Khalifa, the Dubai tower. https://edition.cnn.com/2024/08/28/science/underwater-mountain-seamount-nazca-ridge/index.html