Mount Everest is more than two feet taller than initially thought, researchers have concluded.

The world's tallest mountain is now officially 8,848.86 metres (29,031.69 feet) tall, Nepal and Chinese authorities have agreed after independent surveyor teams were sent to summit Everest. The mountain straddles the shared border of Nepal and China.

Nepal sent its team in May last year, while China sent its team last spring, when the summit for closed for recreational hikers due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The final estimates were arrived at using the Global Satellite Navigation System (GNSS) and trigonometry.

Mountaineers have previously suggested that a 7.8 magnitude earthquake in 2015, which killed nearly 9,000 people in Nepal, may have altered the height of the mountain.

Nepal has never previously measured the height of Mount Everest, and has used to the 8,848 metres (29,028 feet) estimate made by the Survey of India in 1954, that included the snow tip on the mountain.

China, meanwhile, excluded the snowy top and put the measurement in 2005 at 8,844.43 metres (29,017 feet) - almost 11 feet less than the Indian estimate.


Source: theguardian.com, Reuters
Photo source: britannica.com