# Are the Himalayas the highest mountains to have existed on Earth? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 9, 2011, 11:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-himalayas-the-highest-mountains-to-have-existed-on-earth/588403 "2011-07-09T11:19:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2011, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-himalayas-the-highest-mountains-to-have-existed-on-earth/588403/41 "2011-07-11T18:37:21Z")
> [@leahcim](#): > > …Olympus Mons on Mars is [maybe] much taller only because Mars has a more solid interior for the mountain to sit on. Olympus Mons is pretty freakin’ incredible. See the third illustration here: [Olympus Mons is How Tall?! | The Martian Chronicles](http://martianchronicles.wordpress.com/2009/05/23/olympus-mons-is-how-tall/) ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2011, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-himalayas-the-highest-mountains-to-have-existed-on-earth/588403/42 "2011-07-13T00:15:49Z")
> [@Zsofia](#): > > In a small way, the Himalayas aren’t even the tallest they’ll ever be - Everest gets a little taller every year. 😕 ---
**Author:** ![mac\_bolan00](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b3f665/32.png) [@mac\_bolan00](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mac_bolan00)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2011, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-himalayas-the-highest-mountains-to-have-existed-on-earth/588403/43 "2011-07-13T01:18:34Z")
^ effect of the crumpling into china. the himalayas get higher while india keeps shrinking. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2011, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-himalayas-the-highest-mountains-to-have-existed-on-earth/588403/44 "2011-07-13T02:30:11Z")
> [@mac\_bolan00](#): > > ^ > effect of the crumpling into china. the himalayas get higher while india keeps shrinking. Huh. Thanks. Just today I had an argument with a doctor’s secretary who had double-billed me, and started to pester me for the umpteenth time. I told her “you can bill me till the mountains crumble into the sea, but I won’t pay it.” (It felt good to get flowery in that moment of high dudgeon.) How long would it take for the mountains to crumble into the sea, anyway? [I also woudn’t mind knowing how that poetic phrase came into use…] ---
**Author:** ![mac\_bolan00](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b3f665/32.png) [@mac\_bolan00](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mac_bolan00)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2011, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-himalayas-the-highest-mountains-to-have-existed-on-earth/588403/45 "2011-07-13T02:41:16Z")
island arcs (aleutians, japan, philippines, indonesia, etc.) erode the fastest. i don’t have an accurate figure but in the philippines, nothing is older than cretaeceous-paleogene (roundabout 60 million years.) of course, this does not consider the microcontinent which was accreted from china. micro-continents are billions of years old. give a chain of volcanic islands 100 million years or slightly longer to fully erode below sea level. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2011, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-himalayas-the-highest-mountains-to-have-existed-on-earth/588403/46 "2011-07-13T03:08:19Z")
> [@Leo\_Bloom](#): > > … > [I also woudn’t mind knowing how that poetic phrase came into use…] Psalm 46:2 Darby Bible Translation Therefore will we not fear though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the heart of the seas; Most of us know the phrase as worded above by the great Ben E. King song “Stand by Me.” ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2011, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-himalayas-the-highest-mountains-to-have-existed-on-earth/588403/47 "2011-07-13T15:42:58Z")
> [@mac\_bolan00](#): > > …give a chain of volcanic islands 100 million years or slightly longer to fully erode below sea level. So I have time to make popcorn? ---
**Author:** ![mac\_bolan00](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b3f665/32.png) [@mac\_bolan00](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mac_bolan00)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2011, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-himalayas-the-highest-mountains-to-have-existed-on-earth/588403/48 "2011-07-13T23:35:55Z")
but some go below sea level a bit faster. there was santorini, krakatoa, little surtsey. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-himalayas-the-highest-mountains-to-have-existed-on-earth/588403.md?page=2)