What is the Height of Mt. Everest?
Robert Oddo
Horace Greeley High School

It has been generally accepted for years that the height of Mt. Everest is 29,028 feet or 8848 meters. However, in recent years with the advent of new technology the height of the mountain has been questioned. Hundreds of millions of years ago, India was separated from the Asian continent by a sea(Fig.1).  Slowly the Indian subcontinient started to move at approximately 10 cm a year at a collision course towards Asia.  It took millions of years but eventually the two land masses collided and a mountain range called the Himalaya's was formed(fig. 2).  Are these land masses still colliding and are the mountains contining to grow?  It is believed that Mt. Everest is getting approximately 4 mm higher each year. This exercise examines some new information pertaining to what is happenning in the Himalyas.

Objectives

1. To  reinforce the concept of plate tectonics
2. To introduce students to various ways of measuring elevation.
3. To help students predict what might be happening to the Himalyas
3. To illustrate that plate tectonics is still occurring.

Materials needed:
Computers for each student and access to the Internet for approximately a 45 min period.. A Garmin GPS unit

Grade level
9th grade

Procedure
1. The "India" land mass moved at approximately 10 cm a year.  How many kilometers did the land mass travel in 500 years? __________________.  in 10,000 years?______________________.  in 4,000,000 years?____________ in 70,000,000 years? ____________________.

2. Using Figure 1 and 2 as a reference explain what happened when the two plates collided?

3. It is believed that these two plates are continuing to collide and as a result the two plates are colliding.  If this is the case, we might see a change in the elevation of some of the mountains of the Himalayas. Go to http://www.mountainzone.com/news/99/everestheight.html and describe any evidence found at this site that Mount Everest is being affected by moving plates.

4. What methods were used to determine the National Geographic teams elevation, latitude and longitude?  What problems might be encountered with they ways these measurements were taken? (Hint go to:  http://www.mountainzone.com/features/everestht/method.html). What other factors may be effecting the elevation of the Himalayas?

 5. Examine the Garmin GPS unit that is located at the front of the room.   Determine your elevation.  Walk downstairs and determine the altitude again.   Using the information at http://www.unavco.ucar.edu/~amyr/globe_web/globegeoid/elevation.html#intro, describe how a GPS unit determines elevation.  What factors may cause an error in your readings?

6.  If in fact Mt. Everest is gettting  4 mm high each year, how long would it take for it to reach 30,000 ft? (Show calculations below.  Go to http://www.iagora.com/pages/html/tools/index.html for conversions).

This activity would be used after plate tectonics was introduced and various examples were introduced.  It allows students to look at the rate at which India was moving, allows then to see that the process is dynamic and still happening and gives them a reference, Mt. Everest that they can relate to.  They have to play around with conversions and calculations that relate math and science.  Students would also be introduced to a GPS unit and how measurements of elevation are determined.

Teaching Standards:

I believe that this extension addresses a number of science standards including "Content Standard K-12; Unifying Concepts and Processes” Students look at evidence of plate tectonics, examine change, and are involved in the measurement process.   Science Content Standard A 9-12 Science As and Inquiry is addressed. The students are asked to answer a number of questions referring to information (data) presented to them.   Content Standard D:9-12 is also addressed here where students are asked to understand the links between science (mountain building) and technology GPS receiver.

General Discussion of Activity

There are a number of objectives to this exercise.  One is to relate plate tectonics and some of the concepts to something the students can relate to.  Mt. Everest seems always to be in the news and most students know that it is the world’s largest mountain.  However, most students do not know that the mountain is changing right now.  This activity exposes them to information about how Mt. Everest is changing and relates it back to previous lessons they have had pertaining to plate tectonics.  The second objective is to familiarize the students with the instruments used to measure elevation and see how this is done.  They do this by making some measurements using a GPS device and then examining how it operates.  This should reinforce concepts that they were exposed to earlier such as an ellipse and gravitational pull.  The third objective is to enable the students to make predictions about what might happen in the future with respect to plate tectonics and give them a frame of reference of how long this will take.  I don't really think the students understand time with reference to plate tectonics and this activity attempts to bring this concept home.  I like to plant seeds in my student’s heads and expose them to a lot of different concepts but not necessarily in a lot of detail.  I believe that this activity plants some seeds in my student’s heads.  I had a couple 9th grade students run through this activity.  They really liked it and felt that they learned a lot of new things from it.