Topographic prominence

In topography, prominence, also known as autonomous height, relative height, shoulder drop or prime factor (in Europe), is a concept used in the categorization of hills and mountains. It describes the height of a peak relative to neighbouring peaks, and in a way that makes precise the intuition that the world's second-tallest mountain is in fact K2 (height 8,611 m, prominence 3811 m), and not, say, Everest's South Summit (height 8749 m, prominence about 10 m). Only topographic summits with a sufficient degree of prominence are regarded as "mountains" rather than subsidiary peaks.

Related Topics:
Topography - Hill - Mountain - Peak - K2 - Everest - Topographic summits

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