What is the longest mountain range on Earth?
- The Andes
- The Himalayas
- The mid-ocean ridge system
- The Rocky Mountains
Why C? And why not the others?
Correct answer: C. The mid-ocean ridge system
The mid-ocean ridge system stretches nearly 65,000 kilometers around the globe, winding between the continents like the seam on a baseball — yet more than 90 percent of it lies hidden in the deep ocean, where new crust is continuously born as tectonic plates pull apart. The Andes are the tempting textbook answer because they genuinely are the longest mountain range on land, running the entire western edge of South America, but even they reach only a fraction of the ridge system's length. The Himalayas boast the highest peaks on Earth while forming a comparatively short chain, and the Rocky Mountains are shorter than the Andes. The planet's greatest mountain range is one that almost no human being has ever laid eyes on.
Source: NOAA Ocean Service: 'What is the longest mountain range on earth?' (oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/midoceanridge.html)