What is the present height of Mt Everest?

Answer 1

NASA's Observatorium OOTW header
OOTW image

December 8, 1999

New Height for Mt. Everest: 29,035 ft.

Mt. Everest
Mt. Everest

Mount Everest and surrounding mountains, ridges, and valleys as viewed through thick cloud cover by NASA's Spaceborne Imaging Radar-C and X-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SIR-C/X-SAR) (top image) and in optical light under clear conditions by the crew of the space shuttle Endeavour. Mount Everest and its neighbor Lhotse (27,890 ft.) are indicated by crosses. The area shown is approximately 43 miles by 24 miles (70 km by 38 km).

Click on the image for a larger view and additional information.

Image Credit: NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) (top image). NASA, STS-68 crew (bottom image).

The height of Mount Everest has been revised upward by 7 feet to 29,035 ft (8,850 m), based on measurements made on May 5, 1999, by US mountaineers Pete Athans and Bill Crouse from the top of Mount Everest using Global Positioning System (GPS) receivers. Measuring Mount Everest's height was one of the objectives of the 1999 Everest Millennium Expedition, which was funded by the National Geographic Society, Boston's Museum of Science, Trimble Navigation (the manufacturer of the GPS equipment used), and other donors.

The new height was received "with enthusiastic approval" by the US National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA) and China's National Bureau of Surveying and Mapping.

The previously accepted height of Mount Everest was 29,028 ft., which was determined by an Indian surveyor, B. L. Gulatee, in 1954 by averaging line-of-sight altitude measurements made from twelve stations around the mountain. The individual measurements in 1954 differed by 17 feet (roughly 5 m). The probable error of the 1999 result is a mere fraction of that.

In their 1999 measurements, Pete Athans and Bill Crouse were supported by five Sherpas who carried the GPS equipment and an extra supply of oxygen. The team climbed through the night so they would reach the top of the mountain in time to set up the GPS equipment and make their altitude measurements during the warmest part of the day. Once in place at the top of the mountain, the GPS equipment received signals from GPS satellites for a total of 56 minutes, from 10:13 a.m. to 11:09 a.m., Nepal Standard Time. Simultaneously, other expedition members took GPS altitude measurements at Mount Everest's South Col (26,000 ft., 7,925 m), thus allowing a reliable determination of the altitude and position of the world's highest mountain.

GPS observations from the South Col have been carried out for the past four years. They show no measurable change in the height of Mount Everest during that period. However, they do indicate that the mountain is moving steadily northeastward at a rate of approximately 2.4 inches (6 cm) per year. Geologists explain this motion as being due to the Indian subcontinent colliding with and pushing toward Nepal and China, a process that began some 40 to 50 million years ago.
More Cool Stuff

For more information on Mount Everest and the 1999 measurement of its height, go to the Mount Everest site of the National Geographic Society:
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/everest/index2.html

For information on the collision between the Indian subcontinent and Asia, which has given rise to the Himalayas, go to a site of the US Geological Survey, "The Himalayas: Two Continents Collide":
http://pubs.usgs.gov/publications/text/himalaya.html

If you would like to learn more about the theory that the Earth's crust is made of several plates, each moving independently of the others, go to our article "Plate Tectonics":
http://observe.ivv.nasa.gov/nasa/earth/tectonics/Tectonics1.html

We obtained the above images from JPL's Web site, "SIR-C/X-SAR Space Radar Images of Earth." To find the original images, go to that site and click on "Snow, Ice, Glaciers":
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/radar/sircxsar/

For information on the two shuttle missions during which the above images were taken, go to NASA's Web site "Space Shuttle Launches" and click on "STS-59" and "STS-68":
http://www.ksc.nasa.gov/shuttle/missions/missions.html

The NAVSTAR Global Positioning System (GPS) is a space-based system, consisting of 24 orbiting satellites and a worldwide satellite control network, that provides navigation and timing information to military and civilian users. For more information, go to these sites:
http://gps.laafb.af.mil/
http://tycho.usno.navy.mil/gpsinfo.html
http://www.spacecom.af.mil/hqafspc/library/facts/gps.htm

LTP LogoAs part of its Learning Technologies Project (LTP), NASA supports a number of educational Web sites that have excellent material on the Earth sciences:
http://observe.ivv.nasa.gov/nasa/education/edu/edudocs/topic_land.html


Check out other observations in the Observation of the Week Archive.


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Answer 2

Try the National Geographic Society for the latest officially accepted figure. They even allow for the deduction of 2 metres of snow pack.

Them is some smart guys so I would go with their figure.

Of course, it grows in height about to centimeters each year; that damned India just can't be happy with exactly where it is!

Answer 3

8846 meters it was 8848 before

Answer 4

8848 meters

Answer 5

more then 8000 meter, im not sure!