KATHMANDU, Nepal (AFP) — The highest point on Earth got a bit higher Tuesday as China and Nepal finally agreed on a precise elevation for Mount Everest after decades of debate.
The agreed height unveiled at a joint news conference in Kathmandu of 8,848.86 metres (29,031 feet) was 86 centimetres (2.8 feet) higher than the measurement previously recognised by Nepal, and more than four metres above China’s official figure.
The discrepancy was due to the China measuring the rock base on the summit and not — as with the new reading — the covering of snow and ice on the peak.
Nepal decided to conduct the survey — its first — after suggestions that tectonic plate movements including a major earthquake in 2015 may have affected the height.
© Agence France-Presse
