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REAL LIFE NEWS: SO JUST HOW HIGH IS EVEREST, ANYWAY?

by Hazed

As Asti prepares to climb mount Everest as far as the base camp, there's a row rumbling away between the Nepalese and Chinese governments about just how tall the mountain is.

In 1955 a survey undertaken by India set the height at 29,029 feet. This is the "snow height" - the peak plus the snow on top of it - the generally accepted height, and the one used by Nepal. But China says Everest should be measured by its "rock height" which is only 29,016 feet.

So Nepal is going to measure the mountain again in order to clear up this dispute. Government spokesman Gopal Giri said, "Now we have the technology and the resources, we can measure ourselves. This will be the first time the Nepal government has taken the mountain's height."

Scientists will drop three reference points onto the mountain and then use GPS to do the calculation.

This won't be the end of the dispute, though, because geologists say that the peak of Everest continues to rise as a result of shifting continental plates. So any measurement taken would well be out of date before the Nepalese have finished their calculations.

Source: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/07/20/everest_height/

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