Everest is still growing, and a river that stole another river is pushing it up

Records & People A 2024 Nature Geoscience study found a river capture 89,000 years ago is still lifting Everest by up to about 2 mm a year, on top of the tectonic… By Laxman Rawal · Aug 29, 2026 Read the full story

Mount Everest is still getting taller, and part of the reason is a river 75 kilometres away that captured another river about 89,000 years ago. A 2024 study in Nature Geoscience found the erosion that followed is still lifting Everest by up to about 2… Travel Himalaya Nepal · News Read the full story

The river that stole a river

The Kosi river system worked its way into the course of the Arun and absorbed it, a process geologists call river piracy or river capture. Suddenly carrying far more water, the merged system began cutting through the bedrock of the valleys below Everest much… Travel Himalaya Nepal · News Read the full story

How much of Everest is a river's doing

Somewhere between 15 and 50 metres, on the team's modelling. The study, led by Xu Han of the China University of Geosciences with Jin-Gen Dai, Adam Smith and Matthew Fox, estimated the rebound's total contribution over 89,000 years and its continuing rate. So… Travel Himalaya Nepal · News Read the full story

Not just Everest

Lhotse, the fourth-highest peak, and Makalu, the fifth, are being lifted by the same rebound. Makalu, closest to the Arun's new course, appears to be rising slightly faster than its neighbours. How the height is measured has its own history: the first… Travel Himalaya Nepal · News Read the full story

What this means for trekkers

Nothing changes underfoot — two millimetres a year is invisible on a two-week trek. What it does mean is that you can walk the very valleys the study is built on. What this means for you The Makalu Base Camp trek follows the Arun valley from subtropical… Travel Himalaya Nepal · News Read the full story

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