Everest is brought down to size
From Jane Macartney in Beijing
THE world’s highest mountain is not as high as it was.
A survey by a team of 50 Chinese scientists, cartographers and mountaineers has remeasured Mount Everest and ruled that its peak is 29,017ft (8,844m) above sea level — about 12ft shorter than when Chinese experts last measured it 30 years ago.
Yesterday’s announcement by the State Bureau of Surveying and Mapping is the latest development in more than 150 years of debate over the exact height of the Earth’s highest point. If the new figure is accepted internationally, it will mean that the world’s atlases will all have to be reprinted to show the new, lower altitude.
Chinese experts had expected Mount Qomolangma, the Tibetan name by which Everest is known in China, to come up short, but not as short as the new survey showed. But they emphasised that the mountain had not shrunk, and suggested that melting ice was to blame.
Chen Bangzhu, spokesman for the Bureau of Surveying, said: “We can’t conclude that Qomolangma is shorter. Actually the Qomolangma region is a place where the earth’s crust is moving, but the new measurement that we have announced is based on the height of the peak’s rock surface.”
The team used a combination of theodolites — to triangulate — as well as satellite global positioning system equipment, laser rangers and radar altimeters. “Before, we were unable to measure the height of the rock surface. This time we measured the thickness of the ice to get the actual height of the rock surface,” Mr Chen said.
At the start, the researchers had expected their initial measurements, taken on May 22, would show that melting glaciers had shaved about four feet off the summit, which straddles the China-Nepal border. That would already be enough to provoke disputes among mountaineers, who will now find they have not climbed as high as they had thought.
Kang Shichang, of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said that the latest results were proof that the Chinese survey in 1975 had underestimated the thickness of the ice.
Sinomaps Press — China’s equivalent of Ordnance Survey— said yesterday that it planned to revise all its maps of China and the world for next year.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/ ... 43,00.html