TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The tallest mountain in New Zealand, Aoraki, is shrinking. The official record of the snowcapped mount’s height was 3,754 meters (or about 12,316 feet). However, a new study utilizing global positioning system (GPS) data and an expedition reported that the mountain is now 3,724 meters tall, or less than 30 meters from the original record. Avalanches of snow and rocks are believed to be the causes of the shrinking.
On December 14, 1991, the mountain’s height was recorded to set as 3,764 meters. However, large snow and rock avalanches had made the height to decrease by 10 meters. Researchers of Otago University found that since the avalanches took place, snow and ice caps from the top of the mountain has been falling over time. "When it broke, the top of the ice cap was not in balance with the shape underneath," Pascal Sirguey, a researcher and project leader of the research, told Livescience yesterday.
Sirguey and his team discovered the mountain has been shrinking when they tried to build a digital elevation model of a glacier. The digital model did not match with Aoraki’s height as published. "When you compare photos from then and now, it is also obvious, but no one had really noticed the change," he said, as quoted from Livescience.
They rechecked to mountain’s height by climbing in November 2013 and measuring by GPS. Although they did not make it to the top, the measure showed declining height. A trigonometric survey, or a method to make maps in the 1800s, also confirmed that the mountain, also known as Mount Cook, has been shrinking.
LIVESCIENCE | GABRIEL TITIYOGA
