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New Zealand ’s sensational Aoraki / Mount Cook , the country ’s tallest peak , is officially 98 feet ( 30 meters ) unretentive than antecedently thought , researchers with the University of Otago announced today ( Jan. 15 ) .
While currently officially listed as 12,316 feet ( 3,754 metre ) tall , GPS datum from an Otago - led climbing outing reveal that Aoraki / Mount Cook is actually only 12,217 feet ( 3,724 m ) high , the scientists aver today .
New Zealand’s tallest mountain, Aoraki/ Mount Cook, is nearly 100 feet (30 meters) shorter than thought, according to GPS measurements by researchers at the University of Otago.
Capped by a brilliant diadem of C and ice , Aoraki / Mount Cook tugboat above the Southern Alps on New Zealand ’s South Island . On Dec. 14 , 1991 , the crest was 12,349 feet ( 3,764 m ) tall when a monolithic rock and iceavalanchecut 33 metrical foot ( 10 m ) off its top .
Since the avalanche , the ice crown has remain to collapse , the University of Otago scientist of late discovered .
" When it go bad , the top of the ice detonating gadget was not in Libra the Scales with the shape underneath , " said Pascal Sirguey , a research scientist at the university and project leader for the enquiry . " The ice eroded and changed a lot over the retiring 20 years , " Sirguey tell LiveScience ’s OurAmazingPlanet . " It ’s like when biscuit crumble . " [ television : New Zealand ’s Tallest Mountain Shorter Than Thought ]
New Zealand’s tallest mountain, Aoraki/ Mount Cook, is nearly 100 feet (30 meters) shorter than thought, according to GPS measurements by researchers at the University of Otago.
Sirguey and his collaborators first discovered their country ’s most noted top had shrink when they were building a digital elevation model of a nearby glacier . " That model , no matter what we did , did n’t match the publish elevation [ of Aoraki / Mount Cook ] , " Sirguey said . " When you equate pic from then and now , it is also obvious , but no one had really notice the variety . "
The squad double - see to it their measurement by climbing the mountain on Nov. 23 , 2013 , and measuring its height withGPS telephone receiver , though they did n’t ascend to the very top . Instead , they verified the height a few meters from the summit . A trigonometric view — similar to the map - making done in the 1800s — also confirmed the height from lower aggrandizement on Aoraki / Mount Cook .
The indigenous Maori people of New Zealand , and the Ngãi Tahu kindred in particular , conceive the mountain to be an ancestor and consecrated . step on the peak ’s in high spirits point spoil the passel ’s sacred status ( a condition which is also protected by New Zealand ’s Department of Conservation ) . The research team also presented their results to the Ngãi Tahu kindred before publicly relinquish the new top , Sirguey said .
Aoraki/Mount Cook after the 1991 avalanche.
And there is no reason to worry that Aoraki / Mount Cook will lose its shoes as New Zealand ’s tall peak in the near future . It ’s still 75 feet ( 23 m ) forwards of the 2nd - place bearer , Rarakiroa / Mount Tasman , and isgrowing about 0.4 inch ( 10 millimeters ) every yearthanks to grind tectonic plate underneath New Zealand .
