MOUNT EVEREST

CONTEXT:
Nepal and China have announced the revised height of Mount Everest as 8,848.86 metres. The new height is 86 cm more than the previous measurement.

MAIN POINTS:

  • The new height of 8,848.86 meters replaced the long-associated 8,848 metre height, which was, as per a measurement carried out by the Survey of India in 1954.
  • The common declaration meant that the two countries have shed their longstanding difference in opinion about the mountain’s height — 8,844 m claimed by China and 8,847 m by Nepal.
  • Resolving the three-metre difference, attributed to China calculating the “rock height” underneath the snow and Nepal using the “snow height” which included the snowcap, was the aim of a joint project.
  • 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.
  • It gets its English name from Sir George Everest, a colonial-era geographer who served as the Surveyor General of India in the mid-19 century.
  • It was first scaled in 1953 by the Indian-Nepalese Tenzing Norgay and New Zealander Edmund Hillary.

First Survey of Everest:

  • The first effort was carried out in 1847 by a team led by Andrew Waugh, Surveyor General of India.
  • The survey was based on trigonometric calculations and is known as the Great Trigonometric Survey of India.
  • The team discovered that ‘Peak 15’ (as Mount Everest was referred to then) was the highest mountain, contrary to the then-prevailing belief that Mount Kanchenjunga (8,582 m and the 3 highest peak in the world now) was the highest peak in the world.
  • Mount K2, at 8,611 metres above sea level, is the second highest mountain in the world.

SOURCE:DOWN TO EARTH

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