Chinese climb Everest to see if it's growing
BEIJING, Sunday (Reuters)
Chinese mountaineers and researchers climbed to the top of Mount
Everest on Sunday to determine whether the world's tallest mountain is
still growing.
They placed a survey beacon on the summit and set up radar and Global
Positioning System instruments to measure its precise height, the
official Xinhua news agency reported.
In 1975 Chinese scientists measured the height of Everest at 8,848.13
metres (29,029 feet, 3 inches), a few centimetres (inches) more than an
Indian survey had found in the 1950s. But in 1999 a U.S. team measured
the mountain at 8,850 metres.
Growing or not, Everest is changing in other ways. Its glaciers are
shrinking on the Chinese side faster than ever because of global
warming, official media reported last week.
The mountain, known to Chinese as Qomolangma, straddles the border
between China and Nepal. The new measurement of its height is due to be
released by August. |