China and Nepal have jointly announced a new height for Mount Everest, putting an end to controversy surrounding the exact height of the highest point in the world.
The new official height is 8,848.86 metres (29,032 feet), China’s official Xinhua News Agency said on Tuesday, slightly more than Nepal’s previous measurement and about four metres higher than China’s.
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The new height would be based on trigonometric and GPS measurements carried out by Nepal and China. Nepal had sent a team of surveyors to the top of the peak in May 2019, while China sent a team earlier this year.
It was the first time Nepal had independently carried out such measurements amid speculation of a possible change in height due to global warming and a 2015 earthquake.
Nepal earlier recognised 8,848 metres as Mount Everest’s official snow height which was the finding of a survey conducted by the Survey of India in the early 1950s. But more recent measurements had come up with different figures.