Mount Everest

Mount Everest: Mount Everest is the highest mountain on Earth as measured by the height of its summit above sea level, which is 8848 meters. The mountain, which is part of the Himalaya range in Asia, is located on the border between Nepal and Tibet. Everest was formed about 60 million years ago by the compression that accompanied a collision of the Indian plate with the Eurasian plate. The climate of Mount Everest is extremely cold. As a result of its elevation, when the rain fall, it freezes into ice and topples down the mountain. The atmospheric pressure at the top of Everest is about a third of sea level pressure, meaning there is about a third as much oxygen available to breathe as at sea level. This makes it very difficult for climbers. Climbers have dreamed of climbing to the top of the mountain but few have conquered this near impossible task. The first persons to scale the summit were Edmund Hillary from New Zealand and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay from Nepal. They reached the summit on May 29, 1953. At that time, both acknowledged it as a team of effort by the whole expedition, but Tenzing revealed a few years later that Hillary had put his foot on the summit first.

Interesting Facts: Mount Everest was named after Sir George Everest, a British Surveyor. The Tibetan name for Mount Everest is Chomolungma or Qomolangma, translated as “Mother of the Universe” or “Goddess Mother of the Earth”. The Nepalese name of Everest is Sagarmatha meaning “Head of Sky.”