Mount Everest is still the world's highest mountain, but it's a bit smaller than people think, Chinese researchers announced yesterday: 3.7 metres (12ft) shorter to be exact.
The summit of Everest, which the Chinese call Mount Qomolangma, after a Tibetan goddess, is exactly 8,844.43 metres above sea level, according to a new survey carried out by China's surveying and mapping department.
The newly measured height is 3.7 metres shorter than the measurement of 8,848.13 metres obtained during the last measuring trip in 1975, said Chen Bangzhu, director general of the State Bureau of Surveying and Mapping.
But Mr Chen said it doesn't necessarily mean Everest, on the China-Nepal border in the Himalayas, is getting smaller, as some conservationists fear.
The researchers found the snow and ice pack at the summit is about 3.5 metres deep, up from the 1975 measurement of 0.92 metres.
"The improved technology has made the data of current measurements more precise," Mr Chen told a news conference in Beijing yesterday.
The Chinese are confident their figures are correct, saying the rate of precision for the measurement of the summit rock is within a margin of 0.21 metres.
The process of measuring Everest anew began last year, culminating in a group of 20 Chinese mountaineers reaching the peak on May 22nd. They then spent two hours at the summit in terrible conditions, which allowed them to take measurements for 40 minutes, using state-of-the-art GPS technology and a radar altimeter at six control points.
China is currently working on plans to run the Olympic torch relay across the top of Everest before the Beijing Games in 2008.