The massive 7.8 earthquake that ravaged Nepal was so powerful it moved the earth beneath Kathmandu a few meters to the south, according to estimates. “It’s likely that the earthquake occurred on the Himalayan Thrust fault, a plate boundary that separates the northern moving Indian sub-continent from Eurasia,” said Sandy Steacy, head of the physical sciences department at the University of Adelaide, according to phys.org.
Despite the subterranean shift, Mount Everest’s height was not changed by the quake. Everest was not directly above the fault plane. Everest, which stands at 29,029 feet, will still need to withstand the effects of subsequent quakes that follow the big one. But it’s likely to maintain its current height.
