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December 7, 2020 05:25 pm

Everest Gets an Altitude Adjustment: Nepal and China Agree on Height

How tall is Mount Everest? Until now, it depended on whom you asked. China said it was 29,017 feet. Nepal said it was a little taller, at 29,028 feet. The countries have closed that 11-foot gap and reached an agreement. From a report: The world's tallest peak this week will get a new, unified official height from the two nations it straddles. After yearslong surveys, China and Nepal will announce the peak's stature Tuesday, Susheel Dangol, the man in charge of Nepal's Everest-measurement project, said Sunday. "The challenge for us was to prove we could do it," he said. Measuring Everest has always been a challenge, taxing the latest surveying technology since the 1800s. And it created a disagreement between the mountain's two homelands. The difference was over rock versus snow. China's official height for Chomolungma -- its Tibetan name for Everest -- was 29,017 feet, from a 2005 survey. China used "rock height," estimating where the peak lay under the snow. Nepal has used a "snow height" of 29,028 feet for the peak it calls Sagarmatha, from a 1954 survey India did. That's where people stand, atop the snow, and the measure is standard practice in most countries. One of the first official measurements of Everest unveiled globally was in 1855 (29,002 feet). Until a 1975 official measurement by China (29,029 feet), the surveys were by foreigners.

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