List of peaks by prominence

This is a list of mountain peaks ordered by their topographic prominence.

Terminology

There are different definitions of the parent of a peak; these definitions are addressed at length in the topographic prominence article.

Briefly: the prominence parent of peak A can be found by dividing the island or region in question into territories, by tracing the runoff from the key mountain pass of every peak that is more prominent than peak A. The parent is the peak whose territory peak A resides in.

The encirclement parent is found by tracing the contour below peak A's key col and picking the highest mountain in that region. This is easier to determine than the prominence parent; however, it tends to give non-intuitive results for peaks with very low cols, such as Jabal Shams (number 110 in the list).

Note that either sort of parent of a typical very high-prominence peak, e.g. Mount McKinley, will lie far away from the peak itself, reflecting the independence of the peak.

In the table below, where a single parent is listed, the different definitions agree; where two are given, the "prominence parent" is marked "¹", and the "encirclement parent" "²".

In the Parent column, "HP" stands for 'highest point on'.

The 125 most prominent peaks

Of the 125 peaks listed in this section, China has the most: 16. Close behind it are Indonesia, with 13, and the United States with 12.

Additional peaks

The list of peaks that follow is not complete, but the peaks are all notable. Note that island high points (whose prominence is equal to their elevation) can be found at the List of islands by highest point; hence most are not included below. Some well-known peaks listed here do not score highly by prominence. For an alternative measure to prominence, which focuses on local impressiveness instead, see [http://www.peaklist.org/spire/ spire measure] .

All peaks with a prominence of more than 1,500 metres rank as an Ultra. For a more complete listing in certain areas, see the lists of Ultras.

ee also

* List of countries by highest point
* Peak bagging
* List of mountains of the British Isles by relative height
* List of Alpine peaks by prominence
* List of highest mountains
* List of islands by highest point
* Ultra prominent peak

External links

* [http://www.peaklist.org/WWmaps/world50.jpgMap of the top 50] by Ken Jones
* [http://www.peaklist.org/WWlists/ultras/EuroCoreP1500m.html Lists and maps covering all peaks in Europe with 1500 m+ prominence] by Eberhard Jurgalski and others
* [http://www.peaklist.org/ultras.html Lists and/or maps covering all peaks in the world with 1500 m+ prominence] . Compiled by Aaron Maizlish. The latest estimate is that there are 1,516.

References

* [http://www.peakbagger.com/list.aspx?lid=401 World peaks with 4000 meters of prominence] from [http://www.peakbagger.com peakbagger.com]
* [http://www.peaklist.org/WWlists/WorldTop50.html World top 50 most prominent peaks] , originally compiled by David Metzler and Eberhard Jurgalski, and updated with the help of others as new elevation information, especially SRTM, has become available.
* [http://www.sol.co.uk/v/viewfinder/World100.html World top 100 most prominent peaks] , from the same authors as the top 50.