<p class="p1">The new height of Mount Everest, Earth’s highest mountain, has been officially declared to be 8848.86 metres above sea level.</p>
<p class="p1">The elevation was announced in a joint statement on Tuesday by the Survey Departments of Nepal and China.  This is the first time that the two countries, between which Mount Everest is located in the Himalayan range, have measured the height of the world’s tallest peak as earlier measurements were conducted by Indian, American, or European surveyors.</p>
<p class="p1">The height of Mount Everest was 8,848 meters since 1956 as measured by the Survey of India. In 2019, China and Nepal under a memorandum of understanding announced that both countries will jointly measure the world’s highest mountain. Nepal sent its own team to the summit in 2019, while China’s expedition was carried out in May this year.</p>
<p class="p1">Till 2010, the two countries had disagreed on the official height — Nepal claimed the snow height of Sagarmatha is 8,848 meters, while the Chinese side accepted 8,844.43 meters. But, in 2010 they agreed to settle their differences</p>
<p class="p1">The need to measure the new height of mountains arose after the 2015 Nepal earthquake. Christopher Pearson of the University of Otago in New Zealand told the Nepali Times: “The height of Everest is constantly changing due to tectonic activity, of which the 2015 Nepal earthquake is only the most recent contribution.”</p>
<p class="p1"><strong>Why does Mount Everest's height change?</strong></p>
<p class="p1">According to the University of Colorado, Mount Everest grows about half-inch taller every year.  The Indian continental plate pushes against the Asian continental plate, the Himalayan mountain chain is pushed upward. At the same time, the top of Mount Everest erodes because of weathering.</p>
<p class="p1">In 1847, a team led by Andrew Waugh of the Royal Surveyor of India concluded that Mount Everest at  8,840 metres is taller than Mount Kanchenjunga which is  8,582 metres. Before this, it was believed that Mt Kanchenjunga was the highest peak in the world.</p>
<p class="p1"><strong>5G Signal at Mount Everest?</strong></p>
<p class="p1">Chinese tech firms Huawei has confirmed that it is working with China Mobile to build two 5G station on Mount Everest.</p>
<p class="p1">“The 6,500-metre-high point will likely be the highest place where Huawei is able to build a 5G station, but whether the signal can extend as high as the summit at 8,848 metres still needs to be tested. We are striving to make that happen,” Zhang Bo, Huawei project manager said earlier in an interview.</p>
<p class="p1">China’s Global Times quoted officials connected with the project as saying that the cost of building five 5G stations in the extremely difficult terrain could reach 10 million yuan (USD 1.42 million).</p>.