Translated material
The peak of the planet has become shorter
Chinese scientists have clarified the height of Chomolungma
Geography textbooks and reference books published in hundreds of languages of the world will have to be corrected. Yesterday, the Xinhua news agency reported that scientists from the State Administration of Geodesy and Cartography of the People's Republic of China published the results of their latest measurements of the highest peak on the planet - Mount Qomolangma (Everest). And the data on its height, obtained this spring during the largest scientific expedition in the last 30 years, differs from the figures available in all previously published reference books. As Chen Banzhu, head of the Chinese Department of Geodesy and Cartography, said at a press conference, the most accurate figures should be considered the figures of Chinese experts who claim that the height of Qomolangma is 8844.43 meters above sea level. This is almost four meters less than the previously accepted official figure.These figures, however, cannot be called completely sensational. Chinese experts have previously warned that the highest mountain, located in the Himalayas on the border of Nepal and China, is becoming smaller over the years. The Chinese have been trying to measure Qomolangma since 1959. However, until the spring of 2005, the most reliable data were considered to be from the 1975 expedition, during which it was determined that the height of the mountain was 8848.13 meters. Later, scientists began to notice that its height was constantly decreasing. In 2003, at the annual conference of the Chinese Science and Technology Society, academician Chen Junyong noted that since 1966 the peak has become lower by 1.3 meters.
Last year, this issue was even discussed at an international symposium on the problems of the high-mountain Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. The scientific report presented as part of the symposium stated that in 1966-1975 the height of Chomolungma decreased by 10 cm per year, then, until 1992, the mountain “decreased” by an average of 1 cm per year, but then again increased the rate of “decline”. Yao Tandong, director of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau Research Institute, argued that this mysterious process can be explained by referring to global warming. In his opinion, the melting of the snow cap and the reduction of glaciers near the top of the mountain lead to the fact that the height of Chomolungma is constantly changing.
In parallel with the search for a reliable scientific explanation of this process, the Chinese Academy of Sciences began to prepare a new expedition to the main peak of the planet. This spring, Chinese scientists installed the world's highest monitoring weather station at an altitude of 6,500 meters above sea level. According to the Xinhua agency, the cost of the equipment alone amounted to 1 million yuan (about 121 thousand dollars). According to the developer of the equipment, Dr. Qin Xiang, the weather station is capable of collecting a variety of data regarding atmospheric temperature, pressure and humidity, solar radiation, and precipitation in the Qomolungma region.
With the help of this weather station, Chinese scientists were going to monitor the condition of glaciers on Chomolungma. However, so far the data obtained do not seem to support one theory or another. In any case, yesterday the head of the State Administration of Geodesy and Cartography, Chen Banzhu, did not go into discussion of versions that the change in the height of the main peak of the Himalayas is caused by climatic processes. He preferred a more prosaic explanation: they say that the technology of 1975, when previous large-scale measurements were carried out, is clearly inferior in accuracy to the technology of 2005. “Be that as it may, we can say that the published figure is by far the most verified and most reliable,” he assured yesterday.