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Does mt Everest erode? If so, how much a year?
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Question Date: 2017-12-13 | | Answer 1:
Yes, Mount Everest erodes. Anything
high up on Earth erodes and gets worn away by
weather and water. But if the land under Mt.
Everest is pushing up faster than erosion is
wearing away Mt. Everest, then Mt. Everest will
get taller instead of shorter.
Here are answers from ScienceLine
Mt. Everest
This answer says Mt. Everest got taller in 5
days in 1998, and it was growing at a rate of 5
centimeters [about 2 inches] a year. But it says
erosion is probably going to make Mt. Everest get
shorter now.
Mt. Everest shorter
Wikipedia is a good place to learn things: Mt
Everest
It tells about the height of the rock of Mount
Everest as compared with the height that includes
the snow on top of the rock. | | Answer 2:
That's a great question! In general, erosion
happens at all tall points on Earth -- all
mountains are eventually eroded to form flat,
low-lying areas. Mount Everest is no exception,
and it also experiences erosion. How fast does
it erode? That's a harder question. Making
mountains takes millions of years, and eroding
them down also takes millions of years. Because
they erode so slowly, we don't have a good way of
measuring it over the span of one year.
| | Answer 3:
Yes! Mount Everest does erode. Wind,
water, and glaciers can carry away material from
the mountain.
Everest loses about 3 millimeters each year to
erosion, which is about 0.1 inches. That might not
seem like much, but that's tons of material over
the time. Because India is pushing into the rest
of Asia Mount Everest and the other mountains near
it are actually getting taller by about 5
millimeters each year.
| | Answer 4:
Mount Everest is eroding, although I'm not sure
if it's possible to measure how much as the
summit itself is eroding due to collapse rather
than due to normal erosion (glaciers hollow
out the sides of the mountain, and then the sides
can't support the peak and it falls over).
However, the earthquake faults that created Mount
Everest in the first place are still pushing it
up, too. It's a battle between erosion that grinds
the mountain down and earthquakes that push it up!
Seeing as it's still the highest mountain on
Earth, I think we can say that so far the faults
have been winning. Click Here to return to the search form.
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