According to China's National Administration of Surveying, Mapping and (NASMG) Geoinformation, the heavy tremor had reversed the northeasterly course of the Everest, which straddles Nepal and China.NASMG has been monitoring the movement of the mountain through satellite monitoring system since 2005. Based on its report, Everest had moved 40 centimeters toward northeast over the past decade at a speed of four centimeters a year. Its height has risen by three centimeters over the decade. However, even after the earthquake, the height of the world's tallest mountain remains unchanged at 8,848 meters.
Nepal is located on a major fault line between two tectonic plates -- Indian plate and the overriding Eurasian plate. It is the powerful collision between these two plates that had created the Himalayas in the first place. The Indian plate pushes northward against the other plate that carries Europe and Asia. The movement of the plates has been measured as two centimeters per year.
Meanwhile, Director General at the Department of Survey, Madhusudan Adhikari shared that they are unaware of this abrupt change on the Everest region. "This is not our survey and we cannot make any immediate remark on it," said Adhikari.
"Making the measurement of Everest is a tough job and it takes a lot time and dedicated research work, which we seriously lack," he added.
Mt Everest was first measured in 1856, nearly a century before Tenzing Norgay Sherpa and Edmund Hillary conquered it.
The quake of April 25 measuring magnitude 7.8 and multiple aftershocks that followed killed at least 8,792 people and brought down half a million houses across the country. Hundreds have been displaced scores of others in the quake affected districts are living in fear of being buried under landslides.
The threat has doubled as the monsoon clouds have already entered Nepal. Only few days ago, landslides triggered by a heavy rainfall of 129 mm rainfall in Taplejung killed over fifty people.
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