The Cascade volcano’s true summit is a rocky point 14,399.6 feet above sea level. For decades, though, an ice hump on the crater rim poked 22 feet higher into the sky, and everyone thought Mt. Rainier’s elevation was 14,410 feet (or 14,411, after someone added a foot).
But Earth is warming, the summit ice is melting away, and now some exposed rocks stick up higher than the former summit, Columbia Crest, 500 feet away on the crater rim. Given the precision of GPS surveying, that’s probably where Rainier’s official height will remain, unless the formerly 16,000-foot high mountain blows its top off again. Read story here.
