China: Everest shifted 3 centimeters after Nepal quake -- but stays same height
Mount
Everest, the world's highest peak, was moved three centimeters
southwest by the 7.8-magnitude earthquake that devastated Nepal in
April, Chinese authorities say.
But
the April 25 quake, which left more than 8,000 people dead, did not
affect the height of the 8,848-meter mountain, according to the report
by China's National Administration of Surveying, Mapping and
Geoinformation.
Chinese state media reported the administration had set a satellite monitoring system on the peak in 2005 to observe the movement of the mountain.
In
the decade since, Everest had been moving northeast at a speed of four
centimeters a year, and had grown by 0.3 centimeter annually, state
media reported.
The April earthquake
reversed the direction of the mountain, shifting it to roughly where it
would have been nine months earlier.
It
triggered a number of avalanches on and around the mountain -- which is
located at the border of Nepal and China -- claiming the lives of many
climbers. The deaths led mountaineering companies to call off their
climbs for the rest of the season.
New
data showed a second deadly quake in Nepal, which struck on May 12 with a
magnitude of 7.5, did not move the mountain, state media reported.
Previous
analyses by seismologists have said that the mountain likely shifted by
as much as meters in the quake, but the height was likely unchanged.
- CNN