Mount Everest is one of the mountains included in the Seven Summit of the World and is a favorite for climbers who crave the roof of the world. Behind the beauty of the landscape, Everest also has interesting facts that are rarely known. Most people only know that Everest is the highest mountain in the world. Here are unique facts about Mount Everest.
1) Have Many Names
Nepalis call this mountain “Sagarmatha,” which means the peak of heaven. Unlike the Tibetan climber who knows him as “Chomolungma,” which means mountain goddess. While the name “Everest” itself comes from the name of a British researcher, Sir George Everest.
2) Age of Everest
Mount Everest is said to start growing around 60 million years ago. But the limestone and sandstone found on the summit of Everest are known to have been part of an underwater sedimentary layer some 450 million years ago.
3) Always Increasing Every Year
Mount Everest continues to grow about 4 mm every year. This happened because, at first, the Indian subcontinent was a land separated from the Asian Continent. But due to the movement of the Earth’s plates, the Indian Continent collided with the Asian Continent. It eventually formed the Himalayas, which in turn pushed the surrounding mountains even higher.
4) It Is Not The Highest Mountain
Mount Everest has an altitude of around 8,848 meters measured above sea level. When measured from below sea level, this mountain is no longer the highest. The title of the highest mountain in the world, if measured in total from under the sea, falls to the active volcano in Hawaii, namely Mauna Kea, which has a height of 10,200 meters.
5) Seabed
Many researchers revealed that Mount Everest was once a seabed that was continually pushed up due to the movement of the Earth’s plates. This is evident from an adventurer named Noel Odell, who discovered fossils of marine animals on the rocks of Everest in 1924.
6) The Highest “Grave”
Climbing on Mount Everest is a very risky climb because of the heavy terrain plus thin oxygen and extreme weather. This made many climbers difficult and eventually died. Because of the difficult terrain that must be taken for evacuation, most of the bodies were left alone.
7) Endemic Animals
Not all animals can live in extreme weather like on Mount Everest. But it turns out in such weather there are still animals that live. There are spiders with a type of Himalayan Jumping Spider who are in crevices of rocks that can live up to a height of 6700 meters. In addition to spiders, there are several species of birds and also several types of grasshoppers.
8) Pile of Rubbish
Many climbers climb the summit of Everest but also don’t understand the importance of environmental hygiene and health in the places they go to. This is because many climbers carry a lot of trash. In the climbing season, the garbage can be estimated to reach more than 50 tons. As a result of this, the local government issued a regulation that every climber who finished climbing was required to bring back the garbage that they brought at least 8 kg.
