A Himalayan river may be making Everest taller

Related: Recent uplift of Chomolungma enhanced by river drainage piracy (Nature Geoscience)

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Source: BBC

A Himalayan river may be making Everest taller

30 September 2024

Navin Singh Khadka
Environment correspondent, BBC World Service

Mount Everest is 15-50m taller than it would otherwise be because a river is eroding rock and soil at its base, helping push it upwards, according to a new study.

Loss of landmass in the Arun river basin 75km (47 miles) away is causing the world’s highest peak to rise by up to 2mm a year, University College London (UCL) researchers said.

“It’s a bit like throwing a load of cargo off a ship,” study co-author Adam Smith told the BBC. “The ship becomes lighter and so floats a little higher. Similarly, when the crust becomes lighter… it can float a little higher.”

Pressure from the collision of the Indian and the Eurasian plates 40-50 million years ago formed the Himalayas and plate tectonics remains the major reason for their continued rise.

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Read more: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c1wn827dedyo