Everest has risen about 15 to 50 meters in the last 89,000 years and is growing every year. Now scientists say this is because the mountain’s water system has captured a river.
When the Arun River joined another nearby river, the new route created the deep Arun Gorge near Mount Everest.
Now, the river network about 75 kilometers from the mountain carves the large gorge, causing the nearby mountain to rise two millimeters per year.
“Everest is a remarkable mountain of myth and legend, and it is still growing,” said UCL Earth Sciences PhD student Adam Smith, co-author of the report.
“Jump”
“Our research shows that as the nearby river system cuts deeper, the loss of material causes the mountain to jump even higher.”
The tallest mountain on Earth, Mount Everest is 8,849 meters tall and rises about 250 meters above the next highest peak in the Himalayas.
Over millennia, the Arun River has swept billions of tons of soil and sediment along its banks, creating the deep gorge. As the enormous amount of sediment was removed, the soil became lighter and the Earth’s crust was slowly pushed upward, leading to an increase in Mount Everest’s growth — a process called isostatic rebound, the study authors write. The enormous amount of upward pressure beneath the Earth’s crust in this region now slightly outweighs the downward force of gravity.
Source: Sky News
