There have been theories that Nepal’s devastating 2015 earthquake shrank the world’s largest mountain. The 7.8 magnitude earthquake killed thousands of people and reshaped the landscape across the Himalayan nation. According to The Guardian, satellite readings have suggested that the impact of the earthquake reduced Everest’s height by somewhere between a few millimetres and an inch. The official height of Everest recorded by India and Nepal is 8,848 meters (29,029ft). No other peak in the world lies above 29,000 feet, and the current estimate of Everest’s height puts it at 777 feet higher than the world’s second highest mountain K2.
Indian scientists have announced they will send an expedition to the peak of Mount Everest to confirm these theories. India’s surveyor general Swarna Subba Rao said he will send a team to the peak of the mountain. The team will have a few agency officers and the rest will be professional mountaineers. The expedition will involve the usual level of danger but Mr Rao said he was inundated with volunteers among his staff.
The team will spend around two hours at the summit to take GPS readings of distance between their coordinates and satellites orbiting above. The data accurate to within a centimeter, will take around two weeks to be processed.
Just to be sure, a team will also be sent to measure the mountain the old-fashioned way of triangulation. This was the method used by the Welsh surveyor Sir George Everest to determine the peak’s height in the 1850s.
This expedition will cost about US$700,000 and will be conducted jointly with Nepal government whenever the conditions and staff are ready.
The new, updated height would be used to assist in scientific studies and to determine the position of the underlying plates.
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