DINGRI, CHINA - AUGUST 26, 2020 - Mount Everest, Dingri County, Tibet, China, August 26, 2020. (Photo by Peng Huan / Costfoto/Sipa USA)
China: Mount Everest
BEIJING (AP / 77WABC) — The world’s highest mountain is now officially a little higher, but that might not be the end of the story.
China and Nepal agreed this week on a new standard height for Mount Everest, the rugged Himalayan peak that straddles their border.
The mountain’s height has been the subject of furious debate ever since 1856 when a British team first calculated it as 29,002 feet.
But China and Nepal, the nations the mountain borders, both agreed to a new measurement after separate calculations — announcing Tuesday that it is officially 29,031.7 feet tall.
That is 13 feet higher than China’s last calculation 15 years ago — a discrepancy blamed on the fact China only determined the rock height of the summit and didn’t include the snow and ice on the peak.
As definitive as that sounds, geological changes, the complicated business of measuring a mountain and the criteria for determining the world’s highest peak will likely ensure the question isn’t settled for good.
