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| Sunday, 17 October 2004 |
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Junior Observer |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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On top of the world Mount Everest is sinking! You may find this hard to believe, but the highest peak in the world is sinking.
The 1966-1975 drop was about 0.1 metres per year. The falling speed reduced to 0.01 metres between 1975 and 1992 but accelerated to nearly 0.1 metres from 1992 to 1998. Global warming accelerates the process of conversion from soft snow to ice while compressing of glaciers has also led to the decline of the mountain which is believed to have been formed about 60 million years ago. Despite this sinking, Everest used to rise a few millimetres each year due to geological forces. In 1994 researchers placed a global positioning satellite device on the South Col, a plateau below the summit, and discovered that Everest grew about four millimetres each year. Everest is known as Sagarmatha (goddess of the sky) in Nepal and Chomolungma (mother goddess of the universe) in Tibet. Once known as Peak 15, it got the present name in 1865 after Sir George Everest, the British Surveyor-General in India, who was the first person to record the height and location of Mt. Everest. Sir Edmund Hillary of New Zealand and Tenzing Norgay of Nepal were the first to climb the highest peak in the world on May 29, 1953. They ascended from the southern side, today the most popular path to the summit. The 50th anniversary of the first ascent was celebrated amidst much fanfare last year. Climbing the mountain is full of danger and many have died trying to reach the summit. 1993 and 1996 are noted as the best and worst years on Everest: in 1993, 129 reached the top and eight died while in 1996, 98 reached the top and 15 died. Most deaths (one out of every two) occur due to avalanches (snow storms). Altitude sickness caused by lack of oxygen, frostbite, hypothermia and snow blindness have also claimed many lives. How it all began Mount Everest is made of marine fossils over 50 millions years old. Geologically, the mountain is a mixture of different rocks. The lower levels comprise mainly metamorphic rocks (rocks which have been altered by heat and/or pressure). Higher up is granite, an igneous rock produced by the slow cooling of hot molten rock, commonly found in the heart of big mountain ranges. Within a few hundred metres of the summit are sedimentary rocks (clays, silts and the chalky remains of marine animals). This layer is known as the 'yellow band'. The top of the mountain is made from much purer limestone, mixed with sandy layers. The whole Himalayan mountain range was formed by a cataclysmic collision of continental plates, which began 100 million years ago and continues today. The Indian plate had broken away from a much larger super-continent called Gondwana, which included the continents of Africa, South America, Australia and Antarctica, and was moving northwards towards Asia by a process geologists call seafloor spreading. Seafloor spreading works like a giant, global conveyor belt, moving these vast continental 'plates' over the surface of the planet like huge pieces of jigsaw. In the case of India, the continental plate moved northwards at the geologically breakneck speed of about 10 centimetres a year. It crossed the equator around 70 million years ago and collided with the continental plate of Asia. As the Indian plate continued to move northwards, it squashed and thickened the margins of the two continents. The result of this continental confrontation was the Himalayan mountain range. The process of collision between these two continental plates continues today, which is why the Himalayas are still growing in height. Mount Everest was born out of this event. ****** Measuring Everest
How do we know that Everest is the highest place in the world? When we want to find the height of a mountain, we must measure the height of the land that the mountain rises out of. To do this, we must go to where the land begins - where the sea touches the shore. Then we can measure the land as it slopes upwards, away from the sea and right to the very top. When we measure a mountain in this way, we are measuring from sea level. All the land in the world is either above or below sea level. ****** Everest facts First ascent: Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay First solo ascent: Reinhold Messner of Italy - August 20, 1980 First ascent by a woman: Junko Tabei of Japan - May 16, 1975 First Oxygenless ascent: Reinhold Messner of Italy and Peter Habeler of Austria - May 8, 1978 First woman to reach the summit from both north and south sides: Cathy O'Dowd of South Africa - May 25, 1996 and 1999 Youngest person to ascent: Temba Tsheri (15 years) of Nepal - May 22, 2001 Oldest person to ascent: Sherman Bull (64 years) - May 25, 2001 Oldest woman to ascent: Anna Czerwinska - May 22, 2000 Most ascents: Apa Sherpa completed 12 climbs in 2002 Largest team: a 410-member Chinese team in 1975 |
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According to a recent Chinese survey, the mountain which separates
Nepal and Tibet is gradually losing its height - nearly 0.1 metres
annually - due to global warming and shrinking of glaciers in the
Himalayan region. The mountain-top declined by 1.3 metres in the 33 years
ending in 1999, lowering from 8,849.75 metres to 8,848.45 metres.
