Why is Mount Everest so tall? - Michele Koppes

At 8,850 meters above sea level, Qomolangma, also known as Mount Everest, has the highest altitude on the planet. But how did this towering formation get so tall? Michele Koppes peers deep into our planet’s crust, where continental plates collide, to find the answer.

Lesson by Michele Koppes, animation by Provincia Studio.

[sadhabithapa]

To those of who are confused about the word 'Quomolangma', it comes from the Chinese/Tibetan language meaning "mother of the World". In Nepali, we call Mt. Everest as 'Sagarmatha' meaning "Forehead of the sky".

[cadencewintercloud]

Why is the land so low? - Mount Everest

[PlainDICE]

The top two things in my wishlist:

1. Climb to the top of Everest.
2. Don't die on my descent.

[jemanshrestha]

Mt. Everest is in Nepal and also called Sagarmatha by the Locals

[sirish]

Being a Nepalese neither I'm proud of nor I care whether it lies in Nepal China or between. All I care is the commercial climbing route is in the Nepalese side and grateful that it serves our tourism well. All I want is we should preserve its surrounding environment well. It's our natural heritage.

[kazeshinidvash]

If you want to climb mount everest it will cost you around 75-85 thousand dollars(including gears, accommodation and lodging expenses) .You need a expedition permit from Government of Nepal (Ministry of culture, tourism and civil aviation ) .You have to take a flight to Kathmandu, Nepal and from there to Lukla, Nepal which is considered one of the most dangerous airport in the world.From there its a 7-10 day walk to base camp.

[TVinmyEye]

Hikers??? More like Mountaineers, this is no hike this is a gawd damn journey.

[rva]

I'll stick to climbing the stairs

[bookdream]

So mountains are basically the geological equivalent of wrinkles

[PrimiusLovin]

Yes, it's over 8500m, but the surrounding valleys are all around +4000m, so it's just a 4500m peak over high terrain, it's totally not like I imagined it since I was a kid, Google Earth was the first to give me a more realist view of Everest.
And because there are so many tall mountains around it, it looks less impressive than, for example, Mount Kilimanjaro or Denali

[qkrtyfv]

Here use this to finish your assignment:

Every spring, hundreds of adventurer seekers dream of climbing Qomolangma, also known as Mount Everest. At base camp, they hunker down for months waiting for the chance to scale the mountain’s lofty, lethal peak. But why do people risk life and limb to climb Everest? Is it the challenge? The view? The chance to touch the sky? For many, the draw is Everest’s status as the highest mountain on Earth. There is an important distinction to make here. Mauna Kea is actually the tallest from base to summit, but at 8850 meters above sea level, Everest has the highest altitude on the planet. To understand how this towering formation was born, we have to peer deep into our planet’s crust, where continental plates collide. The earth surface is like an armadillo’s armor. Pieces of crust constantly move over, under, or around each other. For such huge continental plates, the motion is relatively quick. They move two to four centimeters per year, about as fast as fingernails grow. When two plates collide, one pushes into or underneath the other, buckling at the margins and causing what is known as uplift to accommodate the extra crust. That is how Everest came about. 50 million years ago, the Earth’s Indian plate drifted north and bumped into the bigger Eurasian plate and the crust crumpled creating huge uplift. Mount Everest lies at the heart of this action on the edge of the Indian-Eurasian collision zone. But mountains are shaped by forces other than uplift. As the land is pushed up, airmasses are forced to rise as well. Rising air cools, causing any water vapor within it to condense and form rain or snow. As that falls it wears down the landscape dissolving rocks or breaking them down in a process known as weathering. Water moving down-hill carries the weathered material. It erodes the landscape, carving deep valleys and jagged peaks. This balance between uplift and erosion, gives a mountain its shape. But compare the celestial peaks of the Himalayas to the comforting hills of Appalachia, clearly all mountains are not alike. That is because time comes into the equation as well too. When continental plates first collide, uplift happens fast. The peaks grow tall with steep slopes. Over time however, gravity and water wear them down. Eventually erosion takes uplift, wearing down peaks more than they are pushed up. A third factor shapes mountains: climate. In subzero temperatures, some snowfall does not completely melt away, instead slowly compacting until it becomes ice. That forms the snowline, which occurs at different heights around the planet depending on climate. At the freezing poles, the snowline is at sea level. Near the equator, you have to climb 5 kilometers before it gets cold enough for ice to form. Gathered ice starts flowing under its own immense weight forming a slow-moving frozen river known as a glacier, which grinds the rock below. The steeper the mountains, the faster ice flows, and the quicker it carves the underlying rock. Glaciers can erode landscapes swifter than rain and rivers. Where glaciers cling to mountain peaks, they sand them down so fast, they lop the tops off like giant snowy buzzsaws. So then, how did the icy Mount Everest come to be so tall? The cataclysmic continental crash from which it arose, made it huge to begin with. Secondly the mountain lies near the tropics, so the snowline is high, and the glaciers, relatively small, barely big enough to widdle it down. The mountain exits in the perfect storm of conditions that maintain its impressive stature. But that won’t always be the case. We live in a changing world where the continental plates, Earth’s climate, and the planet’s erosive power might one day conspire to cut down Mount Everest down to size. For now, at least, it remains legendary in the minds of hikers, adventurers, and dreamers alike.

[anythingbuttypical]

I misread the thumbnail's title as
<Why is Mr. Everest so tall?> lol xD

[Andrewcranky]

It started off as a mole hill, and then my mother got involved.

[tasleemfatima]

Actually each and every video of TED-Ed is so interesting and astonishing that I can't even let a single epi to miss 💕

[RickyRegal.]

Im glad I went to school i understand everything there talking about (weathering, tectonic plates, gravity)

[dryzalizer]

Great video, I'd like to see a follow-up on why the largest mountain in the solar system, Olympus Mons on Mars, is so tall. Granted we don't fully know that answer yet, but I think we know enough for a short summary of possible explanations and how Mars' reduced gravity affected its geology would be extremely interesting.

[babyduck]

MT.Everest is in Nepal where I used to live (I miss Nepal)

[johancakep]

TED-Ed, the answers to your 3 am questions.

[aashishpakhrin]

@TED-Ed : i wish you said "Sagarmatha"(mt.everest in nepali language);as being the fact that most part of it is in Nepal side. Qomolangma is in tibetan language and we nepali call it Sagarmatha not qomolangma. thanks.

[Jern_]

My fingernails grow faster than 2-4cm/year...