In
Australia, Cricketer Austin has decided
to take a sabbatical from the game… .. Austin is only 21, and has reportedly informed Sydney grade club
Sutherland, where former Test great Glenn McGrath also played, that he intends
to take a break from cricket to rediscover his passion for the game. The news assumes significance for his family name – he is
Austin Waugh, son of legendary Steve Waugh.
Stephen Rodger Waugh AO and twin brother of cricketer Mark Waugh
represented Australia with great honours. . Steve as captain from 1997 to 2004, led
Australia to fifteen of their record sixteen consecutive Test wins, and to
victory in the 1999 Cricket World Cup.
Do you know the
contribution of Major General Sir Andrew
Scott Waugh (1810 -1878) and the reason, he is in news now too !!
On Tuesday,
the joint certification made by Foreign
Ministers of Nepal and China became a hot news as it changed what has commonly
being spoken of, [a regular Quiz Q] since 1954. The
common declaration meant that the two countries have shed their long-standing
difference in opinion. Though it was
announced jointly, China worked on it individually. Nepal, in fact, had completed its mission
early last year. The team of 120 (field workers and data analysts) was
processing the data and computing results, which took four months, when the
pandemic disrupted its work. The two sides subsequently signed a memorandum of
understanding to jointly make public their results. .. .. it is the new height of Mt. Everest
The world’s highest
mountain peak Mount Everest is called Chomolungma in Tibetan and
Sagarmāthā in Nepali. Mount Everest, located on the top of the
world, attracts people. Sagarmāthā is
Earth's highest mountain. All along we have read that it’s peak is 8,848 metres (29,029 ft). Although more than 4,000 people have scaled
the summit since Sir Edmund Hilary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay first conquered
the mountain in 1953, hundreds have also perished. Now the
joint announcements puts the height of the Mountain peak to be 8848.86 meters
(about 29,032 feet) , less than a meter
higher than the previously recognized height.
Interesting to read that a Chinese measurement in 2005 had determined
that the rock height of the summit – known as Chomolungmu and Sagarmartha in
local languages - was 8,844.43 metres (29,017 feet), about 3.7 metres (11 feet)
less than the 1954 estimate.
Everest is named after the colonial-era British surveyor George Everest, who never actually saw it. The new measurement will have little practical impact. K2, the world’s second highest mountain, is 237 metres lower. The reason why the newly agreed figure may be temporary is because the 2,900km-long Himalayan chain is located on, and was formed by, the uplift caused by the colliding Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates, which are continuing to push up the Himalaya at an average of 1cm every year.
Nepal, which is home to
another seven of the world’s 14 highest peaks, sent its first team of surveyors
in May last year to measure Everest. Government officials stated that eight years ago that they felt under pressure
from China to accept the Chinese height and therefore they had decided to go
for a fresh measurement to “set the record straight once and for all”. Chinese
surveyors then climbed the peak in spring this year, when the mountain was
closed by both countries for other climbers due to the coronavirus pandemic.
According to
the new figures, the tip of the world's tallest peak is now 29,031.7 feet above sea level. This new official figure is slightly higher
than Nepal's previous measurement, and about 13 feet higher than China's
earlier stand.
Foreign ministers of China
and Nepal - Wang Yi and Pradeep Gyawali, respectively - had simultaneously
pressed buttons during a virtual conference, post which the new measurement was
displayed on the screens. After a major earthquake hit Nepal in 2015, there had
been debates regarding the height of the mountain. The natural calamity that
had destroyed about a million structures in Nepal and caused 9,000 fatalities,
was also believed to have shrunk Mt. Everest owing to an avalanche on the
mountain, which also took 19 lives.
There was no doubt that
Everest would remain the highest peak because the second-highest, Mount K2, is "only"
28,244 feet high. Mt Everest's height was first determined by a team of British
surveyors around 1856 as 29,002 feet. The most
accepted figure however, has been 29,028 feet, which was determined by the
Survey of India conducted in 1954.
"This is a milestone
in mountaineering history which will finally end the debate over the height,
and now the world will have one number," said Santa Bir Lama, president of
the Nepal Mountaineering Association, welcoming the end of confusion over the
mountain's height. China's Xinhua New Agency quoted President Xi as saying that
the two countries were also committed to jointly protecting the natural
environment around Everest, while also furthering and cooperating in scientific
research.
No other
mountain has perhaps been the subject of as much debate. Over the years, there
have been debates on issues like whether it should be “rock height”, or whether
the snow cladding it, too, should be accounted for. The earlier measurement of 8,848 m was determined by the Survey of India in 1954,
using instruments like theodolites and chains, with GPS still decades away. The
elevation of 8,848 m came to be accepted in all references worldwide — except
by China.
New Zealand, which shares
a bond with Nepal over the mountain, provided technical assistance. Sir Edmund
Hillary, the first climber on the peak along with Nepal’s Tenzing Norgay in May
1953, worked as the mountain’s undeclared brand ambassador to the world. In May
2019, the New Zealand government provided Nepal’s Survey Department (Napi
Bibhag) with a Global Navigation Satellite, and trained technicians.
Christopher Pearson, a scientist from University of Otago, travelled to Nepal
on a special assignment.
To
conclude by answering the Q on Waugh - Major General Sir Andrew
Scott Waugh (1810 – 1878) was a British
army officer and Surveyor General of India who worked in the Great
Trigonometrical Survey. He served under Sir George Everest and succeeded him in
1843. Waugh established a gridiron system of traverses for covering northern
India. Waugh is credited with naming the peak of Mount Everest after his
predecessor George Everest who never actually saw it.
Colonial vestige ! ~ interesting
!!
With regards – S.
Sampathkumar
8.12.2020
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