Celebrate Chimborazo Day Every June 3
Happy Chimborazo Day!
What’s a Chimborazo you ask?
It’s an inactive volcano, we say.
And why are we celebrating a volcano? And an inactive one at that?
(which pretty much makes it just a mountain … Especially since it hasn’t erupted since, oh, about 550 AD).
Boring!
Except …
Chimborazo’s peak is the point farthest from the center of the earth (and closest to the moon).
Now that’s something to celebrate, yes?
Wait, what? Isn’t Mount Everest the tallest mountain on earth?
Yep. Mount Everest is 29,029 feet tall. Little Chimborazo is just 20,565 feet tall.
Huh? How can that be?
Well, the heights we just quoted are elevations (distance from sea level). By that measure Mount Everest is the tallest mountain on earth.
But earth isn’t a perfectly round ball (even if globes suggest otherwise). It actually has a bit of a bulge around its middle, at the equator.
(Kind of like what we call a spare tire around our middles).
Mount Chimborazo sits on that bulge. Because of this, its tip is farther from the center of the earth than Mount Everest (and closer to the moon!). By about 1.5 miles!
Scroll down for some ideas on celebrating this tall, unofficial holiday.
How to Celebrate Chimborazo Day
Well. Uh. We’re really not sure here.
You could go mountain climbing. Assuming you live near a mountain. And like mountain climbing.
Lots of places have rock wall climbing these days. That could be a substitute for mountain climbing.
But if climbing isn’t your kind of thing, you could just be happy to have learned a new fact (or maybe two?).
Impress your friends with your new-found trivia knowledge. Or even make a bet that the top of Mount Everest isn’t the point on earth closest to the moon. You’d win! Make that bet count.
