Nature · Hawaiʻi · summit section, seafloor omitted
Mauna Kea: terrain elevation and local relief
Mauna Kea uses an approximately 4,204-meter surface estimate in EGM2008 from Copernicus GLO-30. The bounded terrain section has about 1,261 meters of local relief above its lowest sampled point. Published summit surveys are separate references.
≈ 4,204 m
Data-derived estimate- Measurement
- Highest sampled surface in the documented Copernicus terrain section · EGM2008
- Subject or version
- Hawaiʻi · summit section, seafloor omitted
- In feet, rounded
- 13,793.4 ft (1 ft = 0.3048 m)
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Terrain boundary, base and datum
- Vertical reference
- EGM2008. Published surveys are separate; no datum conversion is applied.
- Highest sampled surface
- 4204.2 m at 19.823056°, -155.469444°.
- Local base
- 2943.7 m at 19.789167°, -155.520556°. Lowest sampled point within this bounded terrain section.
- Section bounds in WGS84-G1150
- West -155.520694°, east -155.415694°; south 19.789028°, north 19.852361°.
- View and scale
- Orthographic map section facing north. Equal horizontal and vertical map scales. Approximate grid spacing: 29.1 m east-west and 30.8 m north-south. Lower and surrounding terrain omitted.
produced using Copernicus WorldDEM-30 © DLR e.V. 2010-2014 and © Airbus Defence and Space GmbH 2014-2018 provided under COPERNICUS by the European Union and ESA; all rights reserved
A little more perspective
USGS gives 4,207.3 meters for Mauna Kea in its geological account. This bounded summit section has a highest sampled surface of about 4,204 meters. Copernicus is a surface model, so summit-area observatories and other structures can affect samples. The section excludes the lower island and ocean floor; its local relief is not the volcano’s seafloor-to-summit height.
The local-relief view subtracts the lowest sampled point in this section: 2943.7 meters at 19.789167° latitude, -155.520556° longitude. This produces about 1,261 meters of relief within the stated boundary. It is not a universal mountain base, a route’s total ascent, or topographic prominence.
The rendered surface uses the public 2021 Copernicus release, primarily based on TanDEM-X observations from 2011–2015 with infill from other sources. It is a surface model rather than a current bare-earth survey. Neutral shading explains the geometry without claiming a snow season or photographic ground texture. No datum conversion or summit correction is applied.
Quick facts
Mauna Kea uses an approximately 4,204-meter surface estimate in EGM2008 from Copernicus GLO-30. The bounded terrain section has about 1,261 meters of local relief above its lowest sampled point. Published summit surveys are separate references.
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Sources and measurement notes
- USGS: geology and history of Mauna Kea
- Copernicus DEM: dataset definition, datums and attribution
- Public Copernicus GLO-30 release documentation
- Wikidata: summit-area identity and initial coordinate
- Copernicus source terrain tile 1 (GeoTIFF)
Sea-level elevation, this small section’s local relief, and the volcano’s height from the ocean floor answer different questions. The seafloor is not reconstructed here.
Source review recorded . Maintained by Ishan Karunaratne. Suggest a correction with a source and the exact measurement being compared.