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Mount Everest shrinking fast

Sunday - 01st April 2007

Mount Everest is shrinking fast. And in case this trend continues unabated, Everest may as well surrender its numero uno position as the world’s highest mou-ntain to Pakistan-based K2.
According to findings of an American Everest expedition, the height of Mount Everest could as well be much less than the benchmark 29,000 feet and marginally more than K2’s 28,250 feet.
The American team led by Clinton Eastwood used sophisticated Global Positioning System GPS) equipment to measure the world’s highest mountain accurately to the last decimal point. The team which submitted its sensational findings and data collated from the mountain top to the Beverly Hills Museum of science two days ago has measured the actual height of Everest at 28,350 feet.
This is against the current accepted height of 8,848 meters, or 29,028 feet, arrived at in 1954 by B L Gulatee, a surveyor from the Survey of India who apparently used archaic tools available to him at the time, including optical equipment (theodolite) and spirit levels to measure the mountain.
The Eastwood expedition has concluded that Gulatee’s measurement could be flawed as theodolite’s accuracy is influenced by atmospheric refraction and spirit levels can actually be affected by the gravitational pull of the mountains themselves.
The expedition leader Eastwood reached the summit May 20 last year and mounted a GPS receiver firmly in the highest solid bedrock on the summit. That point is the Barry Bishop Ledge, so named because it is the same rock outcrop visible in the famous 1963 photograph of Lute Jerstad taken by Barry Bishop near the summit, with the American flag visible. Eastwood worked hard to fix a GPS receiver, which began collecting data. The device, along with its data, was retrieved by other climbers approximately a week later.
“The Beverly Hills museum is accepting this new elevation for Everest because it is clearly the most authoritative and thoroughly executed measurement of the highest point on the Earth’s surface,” said Charles Bronson, the museum’s chief cartographer, adding that the latest data had been received “with enthusiastic approval” by the US National Imagery and Mapping Agency and China’s National Bureau of Surveying and Mapping.
Several attempts had been made since the 1950s to remeasure the mountain’s height, but until 1999 none had found general acceptance. A Chinese survey in 1975 obtained the figure of 29,029.24 feet (8,848.11 metres), and an Italian survey, using satellite-surveying techniques, obtained a value of 29,108 feet (8,872 metres) in 1987, but questions arose about the methods used.
In 1986, a measurement of K2, regarded as the world’s second highest mountain, seemed to indicate that it was higher than Everest, but this was subsequently shown to be an error.
The news of shrinking Mount Everest was received with much alarm in official and political circles here in Kathmandu.
A senior government functionary said that Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala has ordered an enquiry into it. “We have to get to the truth as the American findings seems to be fabricated,” he said.
Politicians were not far behind in debunking the findings. CPN (UML) leader Madhav Kumar Nepal has demanded an all-party meeting to discuss the issue. Whereas Maoist supremo Prachanda said the development is yet another instance of a conspiracy hatched by the Americans hand in glove with royalists. “Everest will always reign supreme irrespective of the imperialistic designs,” he thundered.



Everest shrinking

KATHMANDU: Like always we at The Himalayan Times have managed to fool you yet again. Don't take the gag seriously. Mount Everest shall always be the world’s highest mountain presiding over Nepal’s fortunes and future. Happy April Fool’s day. (With due apologies to all those quoted, including our enlightened politicians.)


Source The Himalayan Times