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Topics: World News, News, Science
Joe Harker
Topics: World News, News, Science
Mount Everest is the world's tallest mountain but one day another mountain will take the top spot away from it.
It's the tallest in the world and still growing by about four millimetres a year but many years from now the records books will have to be updated to show that Everest is no longer the most gargantuan peak on the planet.
That might perhaps be a good thing for Everest given how cluttered it's become over the years with all the litter left behind by people who want to climb up to the top.
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You might think you'd be hiking alone or with a small group up to a bleak peak of snow but you'd actually have to spend plenty of time waiting in a queue for the people ahead of you to get a move on.
Thousands of people have climbed up the mountain over the years and ticked a big entry off their bucket lists but they leave their c**p all over Everest too, and we really do mean they leave their c**p up there because believe it or not the place doesn't come with generous toilet facilities.
Despite its popularity as an activity it still carries a decent enough chance of death as a few hundred people attempting to make the climb died along the way.
It's no wonder that Everest has some incredibly difficult obstacles to scale and once you reach a certain height you enter the 'death zone' where there's so little oxygen that your body is in serious danger.
With that in mind it seems to almost be cheating that the mountain keeps growing to make an even tougher climb for people, though growing by about four millimetres a year is unlikely to spell the end of someone's attempt.
Everest's peak used to be on the ocean floor, but that all changed about 200 million years ago when dinosaurs roamed the Earth and landmass of the planet was all stuck together into one chunk we call Pangea.
Like the Beatles, Pangea broke up and the different parts moved off to do their own thing, but unlike the Beatles these moving continents crashed into each other around 45 million years ago and created the Himalayan mountain range.
The collision is still happening today, which is why Everest is still growing, but the grand old mountain is also being eroded by the elements over time.
On top of that there are other mountains growing faster, and at a rate which means they will eventually overtake Everest's most recently estimated height of 29,032 feet.
Granted, this would be happening in about 241,000 years time but that comes around sooner than you think.
The mountain poised to overtake Everest is Nanga Parbat, a mountain located in the Pakistani part of the Himalayan range.
It's 26,660ft tall and growing at a rate of about seven millimetres a year which means that in less than a quarter of a million years it'll outgrow Everest.