Increasing height of the Everest and its multidimensional effect
Dwarfing all the other mountains of the world Himalaya has raised so high, it is developed like a colossus among the great mountains of the world. As there is a saying “The Eifel tower was not made on a day”, Himalaya also taken millions of years to come to the current form. Many of the peaks rose in the Himalaya, the highest one is the Everest. Until Dec. 8, 2020, the height of the Everest was 8,848 meters but now after that date as Nepal and China government jointly declared the height of the Everest has increased by 86 centimeter which resulting the new height of the Everest is 8,848.86 meter. Round up height would be 8,849 meter. The ever snowy resplendent summits of different peaks in the Himalaya is an admiration not only for the explorers and mountaineers but also to pilgrims and saints, poets and philosophers and warriors and fugitives and many of them consider Himalaya as their home. Everest, the ever increasing mountain is one of the enchanting peaks with astonishingly gentle topography compared to many other similar peaks making it completely safe to climb. Thousands of mountain lovers participate in different activities around Everest to gaze upon the beauty of Everest and surrounding area.
In this article we are discussing in brief about why the height of the Everest is increasing and its multidimensional effect in the surrounding area.
Birth of the Everest
How the Everest and surrounding mountains are evolved is the big mystery to everybody because the conception, birth and growth of the Himalaya begin in the dim lifeless past more than 2000 million years ago. A big sea was existed in the past with very shallow basin. The basin was piled by sediments and washed down by north flowing rivers of the Peninsular India.
The long cycle of basin filling was broken by crustal disturbance which was accompanied by large scale invasion of molten rock mainly granitic origin and also occurred volcanic eruption and explosions somewhat about 470 million years ago. The crustal upheaval put an end to the sedimentation cycle and evidently the Indian subcontinent was lifted up above the sea water. The northern domain of this upheaval continued in sedimentation.
The tectonic upheaval which was occurred about 280 million years ago, the crust of the Himalayan realm was rifted apart. The rifting occurred due to the explosive volcanoes with enormous amount of Lava. The explosive volcanoes deposited fragmental material around their orifice as well as the glaciers dumped their detritus brought down from the elevated terrain. As volcanoes remain active and sediments continue to pile up vigorously, Indian landmass was moving towards north at a very fast rate. As Indian landmass and mainland Asia coming closer, the sea floor between two deepened and sagged and slipped under Asia about 60 million years ago. A narrow deep furrow was formed in front of the fractured Tibetan landmass and volcanoes poured out lava through these fissures. The advancing Indian Landmass indeed slammed against main land Asia and completely welded to the mainland Asia. The collision of the continents initiated the diastrophism which resulted in the emergence of the Himalaya with all the popular peaks including Everest. About 1.6 million years ago the starting of convulsive deformation helps lifting the mountain to tremendous height and still continued at a slow pace so “The Everest keeps growing”. The authorities need to measure the height of the Everest and need to do timely revision of this mother and younger mountain of the world. Geoscientists have calculated a growth rate of 1-2 centimeter a year. As the last measurement was done in 1954 and we came all the way to 2020 measurement of the height of the Everest is necessary and somewhat around 1 meter growth is noticed regarding Everest.
Effect of increasing height of Everest and the whole Himalaya
As Himalaya keep increasing in height including Everest and many other peaks it has a great effect in the Himalayan area. The major effects of these mountain chains are;
Frequent earthquake
Himalayan region is geodynamically very active; it is prone to violent crustal movements causing earthquakes. The snapping and slipping of the rocks in faults and thrusts is the main cause of earthquake in the area. The whole Himalayan region is clustered for the epicenter of the great earthquakes in the area.
Fragile ecosystem
The southern face of all Himalayan range is extremely steep and most part without soil covers which results in degradation of the ecosystem. As the south face of the Himalaya is exposed to heavy rainfalls and sun rays possibility of landslide, rock fall and erosion is quiet high. The snowlines are moving higher and even glaciers are receding at alarmingly high rate as well as the snow cover is shrinking year by year making the whole ecosystem fragile.
Degeneration and loss of vegetal cover
Increasing human population in the Himalayan area created an enormous demand of trees for fuel and timber as well as grazing pressure in the forest is increasing so destroying the carrying capacity of the forest which results in the degeneration and loss of vegetal cover. As the vegetal cover is decreasing many animal are endangered due to the modification of their habitat.
Reduced discharge of streams and springs
Himalayan rivers now a day are carrying considerably low amount of water than in the past. The yields from the springs are also very low compared to the past. The accumulation of snow in the mountain region now is for very less period of time and not dense like in the past. All these finally affecting the lifestyle downstream and also affect for power generation and irrigation.
We request all our blog readers, they can make trip to Everest area before they notice the big change in the mountains. Either one can participate doing expedition to the top of the Everest or can take a helicopter trip to Everest or just do the trekking to Everest Base camp. Our travels Gurus are crafting the best possible itineraries for the successful and enjoyable completion of the dream trips of our valuable clients.
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