Why is Mount Everest so big? New research highlights a rogue river – but deeper forces are at work

By Gordon Lister, Visiting Professor, Sustainable Minerals Institute, The University of Queensland

Mount Everest (also known as Chomolungma or Sagarmāthā) is famously the highest mountain in the Himalayas and indeed on Earth. But why?

At 8,849 metres above sea level, Everest is around 250m taller than the other great peaks of the Himalayas. It is also growing by about 2mm each year – roughly twice as fast as it has been growing on average over the long term.

In a new paper published in Nature Geoscience, a team of Chinese and English scientists say Everest’s anomalous height and growth have…

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