Thinking of the magnificent mountain ranges around the world, the image that instantly comes to mind is the stereotypical postcard of the snowy peaks rising into the clouds. One imagines the rugged mountains of the Rockies, the famous towering heights of the Himalayas, or the majestic Andes running across the backbone of South America. Yet we have been tricked by our vision.
If you really want to know which the longest range of mountains on Earth is, you would have to go past the land and venture into the deep ocean floor. The truth is that when it comes to mountain ranges, the longest one by far is an unseen system of underwater mountains that runs all around the planet as if it were stitching together the seams of a baseball. By redefining the measure of the size of mountain ranges based on their length rather than height, all the well-known landmarks of Earth are stripped of their bragging rights.
