Earth’s biggest secret mountains 100x taller than Everest are discovered…but you’ll never get to climb them
MOUNT Everest has long been considered the tallest mountain on Earth, but new research reveals it might not even come close.
Scientists have now uncovered two colossal mountains that are a staggering 100 times taller than the iconic Himalayan peak.
But don’t grab your climbing gear just yet as these giant formations are buried 1,200 miles beneath the planet’s surface.
Discovered at the boundary between Earth’s mantle and core, these so-called “Large Low-Shear-Velocity Provinces” (LLSVPs) stretch a staggering 620 miles high — dwarfing Everest’s summit of around 5.5miles.
Located beneath Africa and the Pacific Ocean, the mountains are part of a “graveyard” of tectonic plates buried by subduction, a process where one plate sinks beneath another.
The mountains’ existence has been a mystery since the 1990s, when researchers noticed seismic waves from earthquakes slowed down at specific points deep underground.
Using seismic “X-rays,” scientists at Utrecht University pieced together a clearer image of these massive structures.
Large earthquakes cause the planet to ring like a bell, and it will sound ‘out of tune’ when it hits anomalous objects such as the LLSVPs.
These “out of tune” vibrations revealed not just the size but also the ancient origins of the LLSVPs.
While the mantle—Earth’s thickest layer—is known for flowing like a viscous liquid over geological timescales, the LLSVPs seem to defy this.
They remain stubbornly static, suggesting they’ve been around for at least a billion years.
Some scientists speculate they might even date back to Earth’s formation.
“Nobody knew what they were, and whether they are only a temporary phenomenon, or if they have been sitting there for millions or perhaps even billions of years,” explained Dr. Arwen Deuss, lead researcher and seismologist at Utrecht University.
“The islands are hot and because of their large viscosity they don’t move very easily, so they have been staying where they are at the base of the mantle for at least a billion years, but perhaps much longer.
“They form huge mountains, with a height of almost 1,000km.”
Unlike the fine-grained slabs of rock that sink from Earth’s surface, the LLSVPs appear to consist of much larger mineral grains.
These grains take immeasurable amount of time to form, supporting the idea that these subterranean mountains are ancient relics.
Sujania Talavera-Soza from Utrecht University, said: “Those mineral grains do not grow overnight, which can only mean one thing: LLSVPs are lots and lots older than the surrounding slab graveyards.
“The LLSVPs, with their much larger building blocks, are very rigid.
“Therefore, they do not take part in mantle convection, the flow in the Earth’s mantle.”
As tantalizing as it sounds to scale these giants, human exploration is out of the question.
Sitting deep within Earth’s interior, these mountains are hotter than their surroundings and inaccessible by any current technology.
Still, their discovery is reshaping how scientists understand the planet’s internal structure as the Earth’s mantle “cannot be well mixed,” and it does not flow as quickly as previously thought.
So while Everest may still reign as the tallest climbable mountain, it’s no longer the ultimate peak in Earth’s story.
The LLSVPs, hidden beneath our feet, hold the crown — silent, unseen, and enduring through the ages.