Medina - Where Is Mount Everest?

April 18, 2014, was the deadliest day in the history of Mount Everest.

Standing on the border between Nepal and China, this mammoth mountain rises more than 29,000 feetnearly five and a half milesinto the sky. It is the highest point on earth. More than four thousand people have reached the top of Everest. Hundreds more have died trying.

Early that morning in 2014, around fifty men were on the mountain. Suddenly, a block of ice the size of a house broke off a cliff. It cracked into truck-size pieces. The ice chunks tumbled down the mountainside, instantly killing those in its path. For days, people dug in the snow and ice, hoping to find survivors. But in the end, sixteen men lost their lives.

Most of the men on the mountain that day were Sherpas, the native people of the area. To the Sherpas, Everest is known as Chomolungma. That means Mother Goddess of the World. They revere and respect her. On that fateful Friday morning, Chomolungma reminded themand the worldof the mountains savage power.

Every year, hundreds of people from around the world try to reach the summit of Mount Everest. Many of these adventure-seekers pay Sherpas to be their guides. This is how a lot of Sherpas make a living.

But climbing Everest can be a dangerous business.

Avalanchesfast-moving walls of snoware common.

Violent snowstorms appear out of nowhere.

Hurricane-force winds make the subzero temperatures feel even colder.

The frozen ground beneath your feet can split open, revealing cracks more than a hundred feet deep.

Near the summit, there is an area known as the Death Zone. The air is so thinso lacking in oxygenthat you can hardly breathe.

No life exists at the top of Everest. Humans who reach the top must turn around and climb back down right away. If not, they face certain death. But despite these many dangers, climbers come back year after year.

Its natural to wonder why someone would take such risk for a chance to stand on top of a mountain. Different people have different reasons. But when one mountaineer was asked why he wished to climb Mount Everest, his answer was simple: Because its there.

The Empire State Building versus Everest

Everyone knows that Mount Everest is tall. But just how tall is 29,000 feet? If turned on its side, it would be the length of almost one hundred football fields! Or 175 laps in an Olympic-size pool! Mount Everest is nearly five times taller than the Grand Canyon is deep!

Another way to understand the height of Everest is to think about the Empire State Building in New York City. For over forty years, it was the tallest building in the whole world. Now imagine stacking one Empire State Building on top of another. You would have to stack twenty of them to reach the height of Mount Everest.

The Himalayan mountain rangehome to Mount Evereststretches more than 1,500 miles across Asia. It runs from Pakistan through Bhutan. The Himalayas rise higher than any other mountains in the worldby a long shot. More than one hundred Himalayan peaks are over 24,000 feet above sea level. Mount Aconcagua in South America is the tallest mountain outside Asia. It stands at 22,841 feet. That is more than a mile shorter than Mount Everest.

Despite Everests height, fossils of prehistoric sea creatures can be found near the top. Thats because millions of years ago, the rocks that would later become the Himalayas lay at the bottom of an ancient ocean!

Plate tectonicsthe movement of large sections of the Earths crust and upper mantlegave rise to these great mountains.

Earths Layers

Our planet is made of three layers: the crust, the mantle, and the core. Picture the Earth like a peachthe skin is the crust, the fruity flesh is the mantle, and the pit, or seed, is the core.

We live on the Earths crust. It is much thinner than the other two layers. Crust under the oceans is around six miles thick. The crust on dry land can be up to thirty-five miles thick. (Both the mantle and the core are around two thousand miles thick.)

The rocks in the upper mantle (closest to the crust) are cool and brittle. When they break, earthquakes can occur. The crust and the upper mantle are constantly in motion. But its very slow motionthey move just a couple of inches a year.