12-12-2020 | 17:15 PM
New height of the Mount Everest
Context
Recently the Foreign Ministers of Nepal and China jointly certified the elevation of Mount Everest at 8,848.86 metres above sea level. The new height is 86 centimetres higher than the height of the Mountain recognised since 1954.
Key highlights
The new height of 8,848.86 meters which was measured by the Survey of India in 1954, replaced the long-associated 8,848 metre-height.
The common declaration indicated that the two countries have shed their long-standing difference in opinion about the mountain’s height — 8,844 m claimed by China and 8,847 m by Nepal.
Resolving the three-metres difference was the aim of a joint project, attributed to China calculating the “rock height” underneath the snow and Nepal using the “snow height” which included the snow-cap.
There existed several controversies in measuring the height of Mount Everest including whether the Rock height should be included or if the snow cladding should also be accounted to the height, etc.
Mount Everest is also known as Sagarmatha in Nepal and Mount Qomolangma in China.
The mountain lies on the border between Nepal and Tibet and the summit can be accessed from both sides.
Previous measurements of the mountain
In 1954, The Survey of India determined the height of Mount Everest as 8848 metres, which was accepted worldwide except China. The height of the peak was determined using instruments 50 theodolites and chains.
In 1999, a team from the United States of America put the elevation of the Mountain as 8850 metres.
The 2015 Nepal earthquake triggered a debate among the scientists that the height of the Mountain has changed after the earthquake. Following this, the government of Nepal decided to measure the mountain with the help of New Zealand. The New Zealand government provided Global Navigation satellite and trained technicians to measure the mountain.
Whereas the Chinese measurements were done separately. However, China and Nepal had signed a memorandum of understanding to announce the result together. Thus, they declared the height of the mountain together, 8,844 metres claimed by China and 8,847 metres by Nepal. But the recent common declaration indicated that the two countries have shed their long-standing difference in opinion about the mountain’s height
Note:
Mount Everest gets its english name from Sir George Everest, a colonial-era geographer who served as the Surveyor General of India in the mid-19th century.
It was first scaled in 1953 by the Indian-Nepalese Tenzing Norgay and New Zealander Edmund Hillary.
Sir Edmund Hillary from New Zealand was the 1st person to climb Mount Everest.
