Mount Everest: The World's Tallest Peak Shrank After A Massive Earthquake In Nepal?

First Posted: Jan 26, 2017 03:10 AM EST
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Scientists are in doubt of the measurement of the height of Mount Everest now after the 2015 massive earthquake in Nepal. They are now preparing for an expedition to gauge its peak with their measuring tools.

Swarna Subba Rao, India's surveyor general, said that they will measure it. He further said that two years have passed since the major Nepal earthquake and there is doubt in the scientific community that it did, in fact, shrink.

Nepal had been struck by a deadly 7.8 magnitude earthquake in 2015. This caused thousands of people dead and changed the landscape across the Himalayan nation. Officially, Mount Everest is about 8,848 meters (29,029 feet) above sea level. On the other hand, it is theorized now that the impact of the earthquake reduced the height of Mount Everest.

The scientists' expedition will begin in two months. It will take a month to complete and an additional two weeks for data analysis, according to Phys.org.

Suresh Man Shrestha, the deputy director general of Nepal's Survey department, said that to remeasure the height of Everest is a matter of pride for any country or a scientific community. He further said that Nepal's survey department is working on a plan to survey Everest's height on their own. This is because there have been many claims about a movement of its tectonic plate during the recent earthquake.

So, how do the surveyors measure the highest peak, Mount Everest? The surveyors are planning to use two methods of measuring Mount Everest. The first method is putting a GPS device at the summit and records a distance between the summit and sea level. The second method is that the team will use triangulation, in which they will draw baselines between two points on the Earth's surface at the base of the mountain and they will use the angles between those lines and the peak to determine the height, according to Live Science.

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