Mount Everest is the highest peak in the Himalayas Mountain range and is also considered the highest point on Earth. It stands at 8,849 meters, which is 29,032 feet and is located between Nepal and Tibet. Both Nepal and Tibet have separate names for Mount Everest, Sagarmatha and Chomolungma, respectively.
In a survey done in 1852, the governmental Survey of India established that the peak of Mount Everest is indeed the highest point on Earth’s surface. It was known as Peak XV until 1865 and got renamed after the name of Sir George Everest, who was a British surveyor-general of India from 1830 to 1843.
The highest glacier of mount Everest is the South Col Glacier (SCG), which is witnessed by a lot of climbers- on their way to the summit. In a study, it seems that it may have lost half of its original mass since the 90s due to the warming temperature in that region. The study was done and published by the Nature Portfolio Journal Climate and Atmospheric Research predicts that it may disappear completely, sometime in this century.
In the reanalysis of climate data, it is seen that the climate in June/September contributes to about 7 m rising height since 2005 and even cross the cloud cover. However, the south side of mount Everest seems to have had a very evident and extreme loss ever, which was noticed in 1962 to thinning of the glacier to be about 100 m, which has grown to become 5700 m till date. Its loss has just doubled since 2009 and is in a very alarming condition now.
Factors that come under Climate change, like air temperature, humidity, wind speed, radiation etc. are the major reasons for the loss of mass of the glacier.
Both physical and experimental lines of proof, including methods of Sublimation and Melt Sensitivity to Climate Forcing, distinguish the expanding air temperature as assuming a vital part in clarifying the sublimation pattern. As the surface warms, immersion fume pressure develops at the Clausius Clapeyron rate (an equation used to measure vaporization of a liquid from its vapour to that of the temperature), producing a consistently more noteworthy humidity inclination from the surface into the air for fixed relative moistness. At the SCG declining relative mugginess intensifies this inclination further, with reinforcing twists additionally assisting with expanding sublimation by upgrading fierce heat trade. This examination shows that regardless of whether SCG snowpack was in SMB in the twentieth century, changing environment probably drove significant diminishing from that point forward, with an aggregate SMB of −1530 mm, before the finish of 2019.
The discoveries resulted from the 2019 National Geographic and Rolex Perpetual Planet Everest Expedition, which united 34 global and Nepali researchers, different Sherpas, and a progression of calculated difficulties. The expedition was wide going, and alongside the ice centre included taking organic examples, making a high-resolution guide, concentrating on water quality as well as the historical backdrop of Everest’s ice sheets, endeavour head and lead researcher Paul Mayewski tells National Geographic. The group likewise introduced five weather conditions stations (two of them at the most noteworthy rises on the planet for weather conditions stations). According to Mayewski, it is the most complete scientific experiment ever conducted on the south side of Everest.
The review depended on information from a 10-meter-long ice centre taken from South Col Glacier (on the Nepalese side of Everest) at a tallness of 8,020 meters. Meteorological perceptions from two of the greatest programmed weather conditions stations on the planet, situated on the southern slants of Everest at 7,945 meters and 8,430 meters individually, were likewise utilized. Radiocarbon dating was utilized by scientists to appraise the glacier’s age as 2,000 years.
The centre contained layers of yearly ice development to some degree like tree rings-and by estimating their thickness, the group determined that, expecting the pace of ice testimony has continued as before after some time. Around 55 meters (180 feet) of ice has been lost.
While South Col is only one ice sheet among numerous in the Himalayas, its situation at the highest point of the world shows that no ice mass is protected from environmental change. On the off chance that similar liquefying patterns happen in different glacial masses across the Himalayas, the ice sheet put away water that more than 1 billion individuals rely upon for drinking water and the water system could begin to exhaust altogether, the creators said.
Past outlining that environmental change might have driven sensational mass misfortune at SCG in late many years, our recreations likewise feature instruments that might be of a lot more extensive importance for a glacier or icy mass retreat across the Himalaya. “The long-term effect on the availability and stability of these water towers which will impact downstream communities is of major concern,” the ICIMOD said in the statement.
