The State Bureau of Surveying and Mapping (SBSM) announced on Friday that preparations for the remeasurement of Mount Qomolangma – or Mount Everest, as it is known in the West – are in full swing and proceeding as planned.
Members of the SBSM's First Geodetic Survey Team are receiving final field training. The team is scheduled to arrive in the Tibet Autonomous Region in March, when observations and surveys will begin at 29 monitoring locations.
In April, the team will set up its base camp on Qomolangma and begin taking on-site measurements. In May, team members will scale the mountain to conduct observations and surveys using a global positioning system (GPS).
China first measured the mountain 30 years ago, in 1975, when it determined the height was 8,848.1 meters. However, vertical crustal movement in the area has been significant in the decades since.
Chinese surveyors remeasured Qomolangma in 1966, 1975, 1992 and 1998. Mountaineering expeditions and scientists from other countries have also frequently measured its height.
This year's operation marks the first time that Chinese professional surveyors and climbers are working together to reach the summit of Qomolangma with cartographic apparatus.
The new survey, together with analysis and research on data collected during the past 40 years, should provide significant information concerning changes in the height and location of Qomolangma.
The height of the mountain will be released publicly after data is analyzed and the findings approved pursuant to information disclosure regulations.
(China.org.cn by Tang Fuchun February 18, 2005)
