Why aren’t there mountains that are 10 or 15 miles high on Earth?

Question

Mt Everest is just under 5.5miles high. Olympus Mons on Mars is 16 miles high. Why aren’t there much larger mountains on Earth? What’s the highest a mountain can go on Earth?

In: 4987

Answer 1

Gravity limits how tall a mountain can be before it’s too tall and heavy to support itself. Mars has a much lower gravity.