The highest mountains
In December 2020 Nepal and China announced a joint height for Everest: 8,848.86 metres.
Measuring the top of the world
In 1847 British surveyors in India worked out the height of a summit they called Peak XV and gave it as 8,778 metres. It turned out to be the highest point on Earth, and it was later named Everest. Measuring it has never been simple. The summit is covered in snow and ice of changing depth, the surveyors need a sea level to measure from, and the mountain sits on the border of two countries that once published different numbers. On 8 December 2020 Nepal and China announced a joint figure of 8,848.86 metres, which is about 29,032 feet.
The Himalaya and Karakoram
The NGII atlas calls the Himalaya the roof of the world and names Everest, K2 at 8,611 metres and Annapurna at 8,091 metres among its high peaks. Strictly, K2 stands in the Karakoram Range, on the border between the parts of Kashmir run by Pakistan and by China. The Himalaya runs from northern Pakistan through Nepal to Bhutan. It is also one of the youngest ranges on Earth, which is part of why it is so high; it has had less time to wear down. Great ranges like these also act as borders. The NGII notes that they divide climates and cultures, because air, rain and people all find them hard to cross.
Height, relief and steepness
A summit’s height is measured from sea level. But when you stand at the bottom of a mountain, what you feel is relief, the difference in height between the highest and lowest points of an area. A geology lab manual defines the maximum relief of a map as the elevation difference between its highest and lowest points. Steepness is a third thing again: relief divided by the distance over which it happens. In the scene, draw a line across the mountain range from the west edge to the crest and compare it with a line from the crest to the east edge. The relief is similar, but the east side is far steeper because the same drop happens over a much shorter distance.
Height changes life on a mountain
Climbing a high mountain is a little like travelling toward the poles: it gets colder as you go up, and the plants change with it. The NGII atlas uses Hallasan as its example. On its slopes you can see a vertical sequence of vegetation, from warm-temperate forest near the bottom to alpine plants near the summit, all on one mountain under 2,000 metres. Height matters on flatter uplands too. Around Daegwallyeong in Pyeongchang, high flat land left over from an older, lower landscape stays cool in summer, so farmers grow highland vegetables and raise livestock there.
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Everest 8,848.86 m, K2 8,611 m, Annapurna 8,091 m, Baekdusan 2,744 m, Hallasan 1,947 m.
- Everest: 8,848.86 m (Nepal and China, 2020).
- K2 8,611 m and Annapurna 8,091 m are also in the Himalaya and Karakoram.
- Relief is the difference between high and low points; steepness is relief over distance.
- Great ranges divide climates and cultures.
- What height did Nepal and China announce for Everest in 2020, in metres?
- How many metres higher is the 2020 figure than the 1847 figure of 8,778 m?
- 8,848.86 m is about how many feet? (1 m = 3.281 ft; nearest 10 ft.)
- What was Everest called by the 1847 survey?
- Peak XV
- Peak K2
- Peak I
- How much higher is Everest than K2, in metres? (Use 8,848.86 and 8,611.)
- What is relief?
- The difference between the highest and lowest points
- Height above sea level
- The slope in percent
- Two slopes drop 600 m. One does it over 3 km, the other over 1 km. Which is steeper?
- The 1 km slope
- The 3 km slope
- They are equal
- Why is the Himalaya so high compared with older ranges?
- It is young and has had less time to wear down
- It has no rivers
- It is made of ice
- Put these peaks in order of height, highest first.
- How do great ranges affect the land around them, according to the NGII?
- They divide climates and cultures
- They make deserts on both sides
- They have no effect
Sources for this course (24)
- USGS Water Science School, Watersheds and Drainage Basins (usgs.gov/water-science-school/science/watersheds-and-drainage-basins: common outlet, drainage divide, watershed = drainage basin = catchment, larger watersheds contain smaller ones)
- USGS Nonindigenous Aquatic Species, Hydrologic Unit Codes explained (nas.er.usgs.gov/hucs.aspx: 22 regions, 245 subregions, 405 basins, about 2,400 subbasins, 19,000 watersheds, 105,000 subwatersheds)
- US Army Corps of Engineers New Orleans District, The Mississippi Drainage Basin (mvn.usace.army.mil: third largest basin after the Amazon and Congo, 41 percent of the 48 contiguous states, more than 1,245,000 square miles, 31 states and two Canadian provinces)
- US EPA, The Mississippi/Atchafalaya River Basin (epa.gov/ms-htf: 2,350 miles, 15 percent of North America, borders of 10 states, nearly 30 percent of Americans live in the basin)
- National Geographic Education encyclopedia: Source (resource/source: headwaters, the tributary farthest from the end; Gangotri Glacier, Breg spring for the Danube, Lake Itasca for the Mississippi)
- Oxbow Lake (resource/oxbow-lake: concave banks erode, convex banks collect sediment, Mississippi meander cut-offs, billabong)
- Delta (resource/delta: name from the Greek capital letter delta)
- River (resource/river)
- Anatomy of the Nile (resource/anatomy-nile: White Nile from Lake Victoria, Blue Nile from Lake Tana, Nile fan about 70,000 km2)
- Fold Mountain (resource/fold-mountain: anticline and syncline; Appalachians once taller than the Himalayas)
- USGS This Dynamic Earth, The Himalayas: Two continents collide (pubs.usgs.gov/gip/dynamic/himalaya.html: 2,900 km, collision 40 to 50 million years ago, India 6,400 km south of Asia 80 million years ago moving about 9 m a century, rising more than 1 cm a year)
- Geological Society of London, Continental/Continental: The Himalayas (crust about 75 km thick)
- Kathmandu Post, 8 Dec 2020 (Everest 8,848.86 m announced jointly by Nepal and China; Peak XV given as 8,778 m in 1847)
- 국토지리정보원 대한민국 국가지도집 청소년판 2022 (nationalatlas.ngii.go.kr): 산 (page_3151: K2 8,611 m, 안나푸르나 8,091 m, 안데스 가장 긴 산맥, 국토 약 70% 산지, 백두산 2,744 m 천지 직경 3,550 m, 한라산 1,947 m, 오름 약 370여 개)
- 강 (page_3152: 강물은 지구 물의 0.0002%, 아마존 전 세계 강물의 20%, 오비강 약 200일 결빙, 압록강 한반도에서 가장 길고 유역이 넓음)
- 산지 지형 (page_3175: 평균 고도 약 448 m, 동아시아 910 m, 백두대간과 산경표, 분수계)
- 산지 지형 also: 한라산 식생의 수직적 분포 (page_3151)
- 고위 평탄면 대관령 고랭지 채소·목축 (page_3175)
- 하천 지형 (page_3176: 동해 쪽 하천 짧고 급함, 남한에서 유역 가장 넓은 강 한강, 가장 긴 강 낙동강, 하상계수 섬진강 270, 나일강 30, 댐 이전 한강 390)
- 국가지도집 하천 (page_180: 한강 494.4 km, 유역 25,953 km2, 북한 포함 35,770 km2; 낙동강 510.3 km, 23,384 km2; 금강 397.8 km, 9,912 km2)
- 한국민족문화대백과사전 압록강 (encykorea.aks.ac.kr E0035176: 803.3 km, basin 31,226 km2)
- 낙동강 (E0011565: 521.5 km)
- 지리산 국립공원 (E0054158: 천왕봉 1,915 m)
- 국가지도집 통계 26p 주요 강의 길이 (압록강 803 km).
Checked: 2026-10-18