Did earthquake cause Everest to shrink?

Amid speculation Nepal’s deadly 2015 earthquake might have caused Mount Everest to shrink, India is dispatching an expedition to the summit to confirm whether the world’s highest mountain is indeed still 8,848 metres above sea level

100km 60 miles

CHINA

Mount Everest

NEPAL

Kathmandu

I N D I A

Apr 25, 2015: Epicentre of 7.8-magnitude quake

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1856: Indian surveyor Radhanath Sikdar uses triangulation to establish world’s highest peak at 8,839.2m

1955: Indian survey uses theodolites to set official height as 8,848m

1975: Chinese expedition finds height is 8,848.13m

1999: U.S. Everest-Millennium team anchors GPS unit to peak – height revised to 8,850m

2005: Chinese expedition places beacon at peak. After thickness of ice and snow is discounted, height is calculated at 8,844.43m

Apr 29, 2015: Data from Europe’s Sentinel-1A radar satellite suggests Everest’s height fell by 2.8 centimetres 

1953 route of Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay (below)

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East Rongbuk Glacier

North Col

North Ridge

East Face

Mount Everest

South Col

Great Couloir

North Face

West Ridge

Rongbuk Glacier

CHINA 

NEPAL

Present-day BaseCamp (5,364m)

Lhotse

Western Cwm

1953 Base Camp (5,364m)

Khumbu Gacier

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Swarna Subba Rao: India’s Surveyor General is sending an expedition to Mount Everest to remeasure it. Expedition is estimated to cost $800,000 for a team of 30-plus people to ascend mountain

Interferogram over Kathmandu: Generated from two Sentinel-1A scans on April 17 and April 29 – before and after earthquake. Rainbow-coloured areas represent ground movement between scans. Each “fringe” of colour represents about 3cm of deformation. Image indicates vertical movement of up to 9m, with 3m of lateral movement in Kathmandu


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Sources: PTI, The Hindu, University of Leeds, ESA’s SEOM Programme 

Pictures: Associated Press, European Space Agency 

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