Nepal finally revealed Mount Everest’s new height on December 8th, 2020. It is now 0.86m higher than before, at 8,848.86m (29,032 ft). Nepal and China jointly announced Everest’s new height despite China’s previous measurement showing a mere 4.5m lower than Nepal’s.
Mount Everest is situated on the Nepal—China border. Therefore, both countries initiated the measurement with their teams of survey officials. After the COVID lockdown, Nepal and China restricted tourism or trekking activities in their respective countries. China’s survey team was the only group to climb Everest in 2020 to measure its new height.
In 2015, Nepal experienced a massive earthquake of 7.8 magnitudes, destroying thousands of homes and taking away almost 9,000 lives. After about nine years, Nepal has gradually recovered and returned to normalcy. Along with millions in collateral damage, some geologists also suggested that the earthquake might have impacted Everest’s height. The geologists doubted that the snow cap might have been shrunk.
After the earthquake, scientists found that some of the major Himalayan peaks had reduced in height by approximately a meter. Others suggested that Everest’s height might have increased over the years due to the shifting of tectonic plates on which it sits. Nevertheless, the 2015 earthquake was one of the significant driving reasons for the measurement.
The heights of mountains are usually measured with the mean sea level as the base. Therefore, the bottom level is more concerning than the actual top. Nepal used the Bay of Bengal as the sea level to measure Everest. The Bay of Bengal lies near the India-Nepal border, which became an essential factor for the measurement.
On the other hand, Chinese surveyors used the Yellow Sea in the eastern province of Shandong as the sea-level base to measure Everest. The Nepalese survey officials used 12 lower peaks near the Everest Base Camp as a reference for the trigonometry calculations to obtain an even more precise result.
China’s previous findings regarding the height of Mount Everest in 1975 and 2005 have now been updated with more precise figures. The survey team from China also installed a Chinese version of a GPS called the BeiDou navigation satellite system. The Chinese used BeiDou, whereas the Nepalese stuck with the US-owned Global Positioning System, also known as GPS. The final results have been announced and agreed upon by representatives from both countries. Mt. Everest’s new height is 8848.86m, standing taller than ever.
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The first survey of Mount Everest took place in 1847 under the guidance of Andrew Waugh, the Royal Surveyor General of India. The team started their campaign to discover the highest peaks in the world and stumbled upon Peak 15, which they named Mount Everest. At the time, Mount Kanchenjunga, at 8582m, was the highest peak in the world. However, they found a peak higher than Mount Kanchenjunga, over 8847m.
The height of Mount Everest was initially determined to be 8840 meters in the 19th century. However, there is a debate about whether this measurement is accurate. Many believe that Waugh and the team’s initial elevation was 29000 feet, but they added 2 meters to make it sound more precise, bringing the adjusted height to 29002 feet, which converts to 4840 meters.
Climbing Mount Everest is difficult, although the success rate is relatively higher than the death rate. Mount Everest is the highest peak in the world, which means to climb the summit, you have to climb the peak at over 8849. Furthermore, after the altitude of 8000m, you will find it extremely hard to breathe and even move due to intense cold. The major fatality of the Mount Everest climb occurs in this death zone.
Mount Everest isn’t measured continuously and is only calculated when something significant happens geographically, scientifically, or for technological advancements. The last time Mount Everest was measured was after the 2015 earthquake, which was over 7.8 magnitude.
Mount Everest’s height in 2024 is 29,029 ft, which in meters counts to 8849m.
China and Nepal joined forces in December 2020 to record Mount Everest’s new height.
Mount Everest grows approximately 4mm yearly, making it around 2.5m taller than when it was first conquered.
Mount Everest’s height increases due to a shift in tectonic plates. One prominent example of this change was the 2015 earthquake.
