Why Everest, the world's tallest mountain, is growing even taller

Scientists say Mount Everest, the world’s tallest peak, is still growing thanks in part to the merger of two river systems tens of thousands of years ago.

Mount Everest is astoundingly tall at 29,032 feet above sea level, besting its Himalayan neighbors by hundreds of feet.

But the world’s tallest peak is still growing, scientists say, thanks in part to the merger of two nearby river systems tens of thousands of years ago.

Everest has gained about 50 to 160 feet as a result of that merger, researchers revealed in a study published Monday in the journal Nature Geoscience.

“Even a feature as seemingly permanent as Mount Everest is subject to ongoing changes driven by various geological forces,” a co-author of the study, Dai Jingen, a geoscientist at China University of Geosciences in Beijing, said in an email Tuesday.

The mountain peak has been steadily gaining height along with the rest of the Himalayas since its birth about 45 million years ago from the collision of the tectonic plates beneath the Indian subcontinent and Eurasia. 

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/everest-worlds-tallest-mountain-growing-even-taller-rcna173395

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