Mount Everest’s new height- Key Facts

Nepal and China have made an announcement on December 8, 2020 that the new height of the Mount Everest has been recorded as 8848.86 metres.

Highlights

• The announcement was made by the Nepal Foreign Minister Pradeep Kumar Gyawali that Nepal has recalculated Mt Everest’s height.
• Both, Nepal and China, worked nointly for almost a year so as to process the data regarding the measurement of the highest peak.

Height of the mountain

As per the Survey conducted by India in 1954, the old height of Mt Everest was recorded as 8.848 metres. While, the new height of Nepal is 0.86 cms more than the previous measurement.

Background

Nepal started the initiative to measure the height of Mount Everest because of the several speculations that the height of the mountain ( 8.848 metres) might have changed in the backdrop of devastating 2015 earthquake that resulted into massive destruction in Nepal. After that, Nepal and China in 2019 agreed to jointly announced the height of the highest mountain of the world.

About the initiative

Nepal had deployed Nepali officials and experts to re-measure the height of the mountain. While measuring the height, Nepal coordinated with China in its domestic efforts.

Mount Everest

Mount Everest is the highest mountain on Earth above sea level. It is located in the Mahalangur Himal range of the Himalayas. The China–Nepal border runs along its summit point. Earlier, Everest was its official English name that was given by the Royal Geographical Society on the recommendation of Andrew Waugh. There are two main climbing routes. One of the route is the summit from the southeast in Nepal while the other is from the north in Tibet.