October 3, 2024
3 min read
How ‘River Piracy’ Helped Give Mount Everest a Growth Spurt
A model suggests a massive uplift caused by a phenomenon called “river piracy” partly explains Everest’s impressive height
Mount Everest is unusually high, even when compared with other mountains in the Himalayas.
Daniel Prudek/Alamy Stock Photo
How did Mount Everest come to be the world’s tallest mountain, towering more than 200 metres above the next two highest peaks? Geologists suggest the mountain owes part of its extra height to two ancient rivers that flowed through the Himalayas and merged about 89,000 years ago. The resulting erosion removed so much rock and soil that Everest has rebounded upwards by as much as 50 metres, they say.
The outer crust of Earth responds to the removal of mass by slowly rising, says co-author Matt Fox, a geologist at University College London. “This has increased the elevation of Everest.”
Everest, also known as Chomolungma and Sagarmāthā, stands 8,849 metres above sea level, in the Himalayan mountain chain, which also contains the world’s third-highest peak, Kanchenjunga (8,586 metres) and is not far from the second-highest, K2 (8,611 metres). The Himalayas have been driven up by the ongoing collision of India with the rest of Asia.
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Fox and his colleagues argue, in a study published in Nature Geoscience today, that part of the explanation for Everest’s extreme height lies in the nearby Arun River.
Ancient stream
The Arun rises north of the Himalayas but its course quickly turns south, cutting a gorge through the mountains before joining the huge Kosi River. “For 100 years, people have wondered why this river cuts…
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