Mount Everest moved 3 cm after Nepal Earthquakes but height is not affected

According to China’s National Administration of Surveying, Mapping and Geoinformation, Mount Everest moved 3 cm after devastating 7.8 magnitude Nepal Earthquakes but height is not affected.

Mount Everest moved 3 cm due to shock of Nepal earthquake

Observers with the department, which has monitoring equipment on the mountain, found that Mount Everest shifted 3 cm after the devastating quake, while the height of the world’s tallest mountain at 8,848 metre was left unaffected, state-run Xinhua news agency reported. This is contrary to reports by Europe’s Sentinel-1A radar satellite that world’s tallest peak may have shrank about 2.5 cm after the earthquake.

Monitoring data collected by China’s National Administration of Surveying, Mapping and Geoinformation from 2005 to 2015 shows that the mountain has been moving at a speed of four cm’s per year and has been growing by 0.3 cm’s annually.

The mountain is located on the collision belt for the boundary between the Indian and the Eurasian Plates, where the crustal movements are active.

Two earthquakes, on April 25 and May 12, killed more than 9,000 people in Nepal, triggered landslides and destroyed half a million homes, leaving thousands without shelter just weeks ahead of monsoon rains.