A model suggests a massive uplift caused by a phenomenon called “river piracy” partly explains Everest’s impressive height
How did Mount Everest come to be the world’s tallest mountain, towering more than 200 metres above the next two highest peaks? Geologists suggest the mountain owes part of its extra height to two ancient rivers that flowed through theand merged about 89,000 years ago. The resulting erosion removed so much rock and soil that Everest has rebounded upwards by as much as 50 metres, they say.
One possibility is that the Arun was like that before the Himalayas formed. However, many geologists suspect the Himalayas were there first. They think that the Arun once had a different course, and that it eroded its way through the mountains until it merged with a northerly river. This kind of event is known as river capture or river piracy, says Fox.
Fox, working with colleagues including Jin-Gen Dai, a geologist at the China University of Geosciences in Beijing, found that the Arun is a dramatic gorge with near-vertical sides compared to neighbouring rivers, suggesting it is relatively young. They used models to simulate the possible capture event, and found that it would have increased erosion along the river’s path, explaining the unusual channel.
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Mount Everest is taller than it should be — and a weird river may be to blameHannah Osborne is the planet Earth and animals editor at Live Science. Prior to Live Science, she worked for several years at Newsweek as the science editor. Before this she was science editor at International Business Times U.K. Hannah holds a master's in journalism from Goldsmith's, University of London.
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