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Image source,EPA
Mount Everest, the highest peak in the world, is the main peak in the Himalayas and rose from the sea about 60 million years ago. The northern slope is in China and the southern slope is in Nepal.
China and Nepal, neighboring Mount Everest, jointly announced the new height of the world’s highest peak: 88,886 meters.
Chinese media claimed that this announcement was made jointly by Chinese President Xi Jinping and Nepalese President Bhandari, and this is the first time in history.
There are historical reasons behind the first joint announcement: before this, China and Nepal had different official opinions on the height of this peak.
In the videoconference of the foreign ministers of the two countries that announced the new heights, China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi used the Tibetan term “Mount Everest”, while Nepal’s Foreign Minister Pradeep Kumar Gyawali, used the Nepalese name “Sa Sagarmatha”.
With China and Nepal announcing the new height of Mount Everest, there are many interpretations of international politics around Mount Everest and beyond.
BBC Chinese will solve the highlights of the new height of Mount Everest.
Why did the two countries have different heights of Mount Everest before?
The height of Mount Everest previously measured by China was 8844.43 meters, while the height of Mount Everest in Nepal was 8847.6 meters. There is a space of about 4 meters between the two.
The Chinese survey uses the rock at the top of Mount Everest as the highest landmark, while Nepal believes that the snow and ice at the top should be included in the height.
The survey in China was conducted in 2005, and the height of Mount Everest in Nepal is based on 1954 figures from The Survey of India.
Why measure again?
After the China survey in 2005, Nepalese government officials told the BBC in 2012 that China had pressured Nepal to accept the height of the China survey and therefore decided to measure again “to solve the problem. problem once and for all. “
In 2015, a major earthquake occurred in Nepal. In response to the possible impact of the height of Mount Everest, Nepal initiated the first autonomous measurement of the height of Mount Everest in history.
Image source,fake images
To measure the height of Mount Everest, two Nepalese surveyors climbed to the top from the southern slope.
Some geologists believe that this great earthquake may cause the top of Mount Everest to shrink.
Scientists have discovered that certain peaks in the Himalayas, especially those near the epicenter, have dropped about a meter after the earthquake.
Other scientists believe that Mount Everest is being pushed by the collision between the Indian and Eurasian plates, and has in fact been increasing. However, some experts say that a large earthquake can reverse this process.
In October 2019, when Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Nepal, the two sides issued a joint statement in which they declared that China and Nepal will “jointly announce the elevation of Mount Everest and carry out scientific and technological cooperation.”
China announced the launch of new surveys in April 2020, and Nepal has also made long-term preparations for autonomous surveys.
Four Nepalese surveyors spent two years training before setting off for Mount Everest.
Nepal Topography and Cartography Office spokesman Damodar Dhakal told the BBC that the 2015 earthquake was one of the main reasons why Nepal re-measured the height of Mount Everest. We have a young and trained surveying and mapping team that can climb Mount Everest. We can study and map ourselves. “
China stated that possible height changes caused by geological activities on Mount Everest and the improvement of modern surveying technology, including satellite technology, are important reasons for re-measuring the height of Mount Everest.
How to re-measure the height of Mount Everest?
The height of the mountain is measured based on the average sea level. Therefore, measuring mountain peaks is not so much calculating the height of the mountain top as calculating the position of the mountain base.
Nepal uses the Bay of Bengal as a sea level reference, but India has surveyed a point closer to Mount Everest in the Bay of Bengal near the India-Nepal border, and can provide Nepalese inspection personnel with the height of this point.
From that point on, Nepal established a network of observation stations that spanned almost 250 kilometers to connect the points where Everest first appeared, forming a chain of points that can be added together to measure.
Chinese surveyors use the mean sea level of the Yellow Sea as the starting surface for the elevation of Mount Everest.
Surveyors on both sides also used trigonometric formulas to calculate the height of the mountaintop.
Although Yamashita’s topographic and cartographic work is already very accurate, it still requires isotope measurement. Nepalese survey staff reached the summit last year, while Chinese survey staff reached the summit in May this year. This is also the only team to reach the top of Mount Everest in 2020 under the influence of the new corona epidemic. Affected by the epidemic, Nepal has suspended all mountaineering expeditions and China has also banned the entry of foreign tourists.
Nepalese officials stated that they used 12 mountain peaks lower than Mount Everest to compare to Mount Everest for triangulation calculations to achieve more accurate results. Chinese surveyors also used the same method.
What are the measurements of Everest in history?
In 1865, the director of the British India Survey Office proposed to name the highest peak in the world after its predecessor, Sir George Everest. At that time, the British Bureau of Studies adopted the geodetic triangulation method to determine the height of Mount Everest at 8,840 meters in India.
Image source,xinhua
The Chinese surveying and mapping team will test equipment near Mount Everest base camp in May 2020.
From 1952 to 1954, the Indian Bureau of Studies obtained the consent of Nepal to advance triangulation to Nepal, and the elevation of Mount Everest was 8847.6 meters.
A survey conducted by China in 1975 showed that the height of Mount Everest was 8848.11 meters.
In 1987, Italy used satellite measurement technology to measure a height of 8872 meters, but after the outside world raised questions about its method, in 1992 another Italian measurement plan used a global positioning system and laser measurement technology. to identify accounts. The maximum height is 8846 meters. But this method is still being questioned.
In 1999, the American survey conducted by the National Geographic Society (USA) used GPS equipment to measure and concluded that the height of Mount Everest was 8850 meters.
In 2005, China again used the measurement method combining ice-drilling radar and GPS equipment and found that the “height of the rock” of Mount Everest was 8844.43 meters. However, Nepal has not accepted this conclusion.
This time, the new height of Mount Everest agreed by China and Nepal is the “Elevation of the snow surface of Everest based on the global elevation data”, which exceeds the height previously recognized by the two countries.
The political significance of the height of Mount Everest?
China and Nepal jointly announced the new height of Mount Everest, which is considered to mark the closest political, economic and cultural relations between the two countries. Both Chinese leader Xi Jinping and the Nepalese president praised that the results of this cooperation favor the common interests of both sides.
Chinese state media propaganda gave it “historical significance”, saying that the growing mutual political trust between the two countries is the result of the joint construction of the “Belt and Road”.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian even linked this cooperation to the new corona epidemic facing the world, saying that “this good news also brings hope to the world currently affected by the epidemic.”
For China, the new height of Mount Everest announced in cooperation with Nepal is a unique opportunity after the deterioration of relations with the United States, Australia, India and other countries under the new corona epidemic, showing the success of their exchanges with the outside world.
