Did quake shrink Everest?

INDIA: According to India’s surveyor-general, a school of thought has grown that Earth’s highest peak, Mt Everest, has shrunk.

‘‘We are sending an expedition to Mt Everest,’’ said the official, Swarna Subba Rao, on the sidelines of the Geospatial World Forum in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad.

He said his surveyors would work with the government of Nepal, which shares the mountain with China, to ‘‘remeasure’’ the hulking rock.

The culprit of the possible shrinking is thought to be the gigantic earthquake that devastated Nepal in April 2015.

Smithsonian Magazine reported shortly after the quake that satellite data was used to determine that large swathes of land in Nepal had risen more than 10 metres, while others had dropped. Conflicting reports on what has happened to the exact altitude of Everest’s peak leave considerable doubt.

The last time the mountain was measured was more than six decades ago, also by the Survey of India. They found that Everest rose to 29,028 feet (8847m) above sea level.

It is unlikely that a new survey would find that Everest’s peak was in fact below 29,000 feet, but measuring technology has significantly improved, leaving room for discrepancies.

No other peak in the world lies above 29,000 feet, and the current estimation of Everest’s height puts it 236m higher than the secondhighest mountain, K2, in Pakistan. – Washington Post