Mt. Everest isn’t the farthest point from the Earth’s center?!

I thought it would be! Mt. Everest is the tallest mountain above sea level. However, Mt. Chimborazo in Ecuador is ACTUALLY the farthest point from the Earth’s center! And the closest point on Earth’s surface to outer space!  

But how can this be? Well, I did some digging. As it turns out, the Earth is not a perfect sphere. Due to the centrifugal force of the Earth spinning, the area around the Equator bulges out slightly more. Because of this, Mt. Chimborazo in the Andes Mountain range is about 1.3 miles taller than the Himalayas when measuring from the center of the Earth outwards. Who would have thought, right? So, if you’re planning to send a rocket to the moon from a mountain and cut travel time—this one would work! Well, granted it doesn’t ever erupt. Mt. Chimborazo is also a volcano. Thankfully, it is dormant. In fact, most peaks in the Andes Mountains are volcanic. Some of them are not dormant, and are still very much active today.  

Here at Fibo, we don’t just like to draw things for fun, or because they are pretty (although that is still fun in and of itself), … we like to explore and educate ourselves on the world around us, so that we can speak to and contribute to the world through our art! 

In that vain, let’s learn more about the Andes Mountains through art! Click here to watch our Youtube video on how to create the Andes Mountains: https://youtu.be/DqSbBFM93ss We will learn how to draw the stunning peaks of the Andes and learn how to color them in!  

And if you love this class and want to broaden your horizons further, check out more projects from our Around the World series, where we travel the world … through art. Check out the South American continent portion of this series here: https://fiboart.com/collections/around-the-world