Everest, Mount, mountain peak in the Himalayas of southern Asia,

consider the highest mountain in the world.

Mount Everest is situated at the edge of the Tibetan Plateau (Qing Zang Gaoyuan), on the border between Nepal and Tibet. The mountain was named for Sir George Everest, a British military engineer who served as surveyor general of India from 1829 to 1843, during which time the peak was surveyed. Everest was the first person to record the location and height of the mountain, then known as Peak XV. Most Nepali people refer to the mountain as Sagarmatha, meaning "Forehead in the Sky." Speakers of Tibetan languages, including the Sherpa people of northern Nepal, refer to the mountain as Chomolungma, Tibetan for "Goddess Mother of the World." In 1954, after various figures had been rejected, the height of Mount Everest was determined as 8848 m (29,028 ft). The mountain's actual height, and the claim that Everest is the highest mountain in the world, have been disputed. But additional surveys completed in the early 1990s continued to support evidence that Everest is the highest mountain in the world. In fact, the mountain is rising a few millimeters each year due to geological forces. Global Positioning Technology (GPS) has been installed on Mount Everest for the purpose of detecting slight rates of geological uplift.

Geological Formation Mount Everest, like the rest of the Himalayas, rose from the floor of the ancient Tethys Sea. The range was created when the Eurasian continental plate collided with the Indian subcontinental plate about 30 to 50 million years ago. Eventually the marine limestone was forced upward to become the characteristic yellow band on the top of Mount Everest. Beneath the shallow marine rock lies the highly metamorphosed black gneiss (foliated, or layered, rock) of the Precambrian era, a remnant of the original continental plates that collided and forced up the Himalayas. Mount Everest is covered with huge glaciers that descend from the main peak and its nearby satellite peaks. The mountain itself is a pyramid-shaped horn, sculpted by the erosive power of the glacial ice into three massive faces and three major ridges, which soar to the summit from the north, south, and west and separate the glaciers. From the south side of the mountain, in a clockwise direction, the main glaciers are the Khumbu glacier, which flows northeast before turning southwest; the West Rongbuk glacier in the northwest; the Rongbuk glacier in the north; the East Rongbuk glacier in the northeast; and the Kangshung glacier in the east.

The climate of Mount Everest is naturally extreme. In January, the coldest month, the summit temperature averages about -36° C (about -33° F) and can drop as low as -60° C (-76° F). In July, the warmest month, the average summit temperature is -19° C (-2° F). At no time of the year does the temperature on the summit rise above freezing. In winter and spring the prevailing westerly wind blows against the peak and around the summit. Moisture-laden air rises from the south slopes of the Himalayas and condenses into a white, pennant-shaped cloud pointing east; this "flag cloud" sometimes enables climbers to predict storms. When the wind reaches about 80 km/h (about 50 mph), the flag cloud is at a right angle to the peak. When the wind is weaker, the cloud tilts up; when it is stronger, the flag tilts down. From June through September the mountain is in the grip of the Indian monsoon, during which wind and precipitation blow in from the Indian Ocean. Masses of clouds and violent snowstorms are common during this time. From November to February, in the dead of winter, the global southwest-flowing jet stream moves in from the north, beating the summit with winds of hurricane force that may reach more than 285 km/h (177 mph). Even during the pre- and post-monsoon climbing seasons, strong winds may arise suddenly. When such storms develop, sand and small stones carried aloft, as well as beating snow and ice, pose problems for climbers. Precipitation falls mostly during the monsoon season, while winter storms between December and March account for the rest. Unexpected storms, however, can drop up to 3 m (10 ft) of snow on unsuspecting climbers and mountain hikers. Base Camp, which serves as a resting area and base of operations for climbers organizing their attempts for the summit, is located on the Khumbu glacier at an elevation of 5300 m (17,400 ft); it receives an average of 450 mm (18 in) of precipitation a year.

Naming

The Tibetan name for Mount Everest is Chomolungma or Qomolangma (ཇོ་མོ་གླིང་མ, translated as "Mother of the Universe" or "Goddess Mother of the Snows"), and the related[citation needed] Chinese name is Zhūmùlǎngmǎ Fēng (Simplified Chinese: 珠穆朗玛峰; Traditional Chinese: 珠穆朗瑪峰) or Shèngmǔ Fēng (Simplified Chinese: 圣母峰; Traditional Chinese: 聖母峰). According to English accounts of the mid-19th century, the local name in Darjeeling for Mount Everest was Deodungha, or "Holy Mountain."[1]. In the 1960s, the Government of Nepal gave the mountain an official Nepali name: Sagarmatha (सगरमाथा), meaning "Head of the Sky".
In 1865, the mountain was given its English name by Andrew Waugh, the British surveyor-general of India. With both Nepal and Tibet closed to foreign travel, he wrote:

Waugh chose to name the mountain after George Everest, first using the spelling Mont Everest, and then Mount Everest. However, the modern pronunciation of Everest (IPA: /ˈɛvərɪst/ or /ˈɛvərɨst/ (EV-er-est)) is in fact different from Sir George's own pronunciation of his surname, which was /ˈiːvrɪst/ (EAVE-rest).
In the early 1960s, the Nepalese government realized that Mount Everest had no Nepalese name. This was because the mountain was not known and named in ethnic Nepal (that is, the Kathmandu valley and surrounding areas). The government set out to find a name for the mountain (the Sherpa/Tibetan name Chomolangma was not acceptable, as it would have been against the idea of unification (Nepalization) of the country. The name Sagarmatha (सगरमाथा) was thus invented by Baburam Acharya. As Hindu belife and Indian name of Mount Everest was "Gouri-Shankar"(The Environs and Native Names of Mount Everest writen by L. A. Waddell)
In 2002, the Chinese People's Daily newspaper published an article making a case against the continued use of the English name for the mountain in the Western world, insisting that it should be referred to by its Tibetan name. The newspaper argued that the Chinese (in nature a Tibetan) name preceded the English one, as Mount Qomolangma was marked on a Chinese map more than 280 years ago.[6]