Nepal Decides to Re-Measure Mount Everest
The government of Nepal is planning to re-measure Mount Everest, the world’s highest mountain. China and Nepal have been arguing for years about how high the mountain really is.
Mount Everest lies on the border of the two countries. According to China the mountain is 8,844 meters high, Nepal puts its height at 8,848 meters, which is also the official height in most of the world’s geography and reference books. The difference occurs because China measures Mount Everest by its rock height while Nepal adds the height of the snow.
Some geologists however think that both numbers could be wrong. Since India is pushing itself under the Asian continent the Himalayas are becoming taller and taller. In 1999 an American expedition measured the mountain and recorded its height at 8,850 meters.
This will be the first time that the Himalayan country will determine the height of Mount Everest. The peak was first measured in 1856. A measurement conducted by India recorded the mountain at 8,848 meters in 1955. Now Nepal has the technology to measure the peak itself.
The new survey will be conducted through GPS and will take about two years. Three stations will be set up to measure the mountain’s height.
Since Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tensing Norgay became the first to reach the peak of Mount Everest about 3,000 mountaineers have successfully climbed the world’s tallest mountain.
Related Topics
- The Himalayas - Highest Mountains on Earth
- Nepal Bans Solo Mountain Climbers
- India
- Sherpas -Mountain People of the Himalayas
- Climbing Mount Everest
- Geologic History of the Earth
Words
- according to = as said by …
- add = include
- argue = quarrel
- border =line between two countries
- conduct = carry out
- determine = here: to find out the real height
- geologist = the study of the rocks that make up the surface of the earth
- government = people who rule a country
- GPS = Global Positioning System = a system that uses radio signals of satellites to show your correct position on earth
- height = how high something is
- measure = to calculate how high something is
- mountaineer = mountain climber
- occur = happen
- official = here: the number that is in reference books
- peak = the sharply pointed tip of the mountain
- re-measure = to calculate the size or height of something again
- reach = get to
- record = to write down data or information
- reference book = a book like a dictionary or encyclopaedia that you look at to find information
- successful = to do something that you have planned to do
- survey = study, examination
- technology = knowledge, machines and tools to do a job