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An odd record has resulted from the global pandemic—Mount Everest, the tallest mountain in the world, was recorded to be taller than previously measured.
During the spring of this year, the mountain was closed to climbers because of the pandemic. Chinese surveyors were allowed to climb and measure using a Global Navigation Satellite system and trigonometry. A team from Nepal surveyed the peak in May last year.
Everest spans both China and Nepal as the border crosses the mountain. For many years the exact height differed according to each country. Nepal used the height decided by a survey in 1954 which included the snow on the top. In 2005, China determined the height measured to the rock on the summit and their estimate made the mountain 11 feet (3.7 meters) shorter.
Mount Everest is part of the Himalayas, a chain of mountains formed by colliding tectonic plates. The Indian and Eurasian plates continually push up against one another and the result is that the mountains in the chain grow an average of .4 inches (1 cm) per year. It was thought that a 7.8 magnitude earthquake in 2015 might have altered the height of the mountain.
When a surveyor’s beacon was placed on the summit, measurements were taken from six points. Surveyors from both sides then agreed on the height as 29,032 ft (8,848.86 m)—a slightly higher total than the previous 29,017 ft (8,844.43 m).
Announcing these findings to the world, the Nepali foreign minister described Everest as an “eternal symbol of … friendship between Nepal and China.”
