According to a new study, a river roughly 46 miles (75 kilometers) from Everest was "captured" by another around 89,000 years ago. The erosion from this event carved away a huge gorge, leading to a loss of landmass that made the mountain experience a major growth spurt.

And, perhaps just as interesting, the answer for Everest’s growth is down at ground level — specifically the Arun River north of the mountain. Thousands of years ago, its course of flow was changed due to erosion, and the Arun connected with its lower reach and became part of the nearby Kosi River system.

Mount Everest is Earth's tallest mountain - towering 5.5 miles (8.85 km) above sea level - and is actually still growing. While it and the rest of the Himalayas are continuing an inexorable uplift that dates back to their birth roughly 50 million years ago when the Indian subcontinent collided with Eurasia,

Mount Everest, the world's highest mountain standing at 8.85 km above sea level, has grown taller by around 15 to 50 metres in the last 89,000 years, and it's increasing every year, as per a study published in Nature Geoscience.

River is pushing up Mount Everest’s peak, study suggests - Over the past 89,000 years, this has increased Everest’s height by between 15 and 50 metres, researchers say.

Researchers say that two rivers merged some 89,000 years ago and gave the mightiest peak in the Himalayas a huge growth spurt.

Mount Everest, also known as Chomolungma, has grown about 15 to 50 meters (50 to 164 feet) higher over the past 89,000 years than expected, according to a modeling study released Monday. The culprit is a nearby river eroding and pushing down land, causing the ground under Mount Everest to rebound and lift.

Scientists may finally have an explanation for why Mount Everest is so much taller than the other great Himalayan peaks – and still growing. Everest is known to be growing by about 2mm a year, and the official figure for its height was last revised upwards by almost a metre in 2020 to 8,848.86m.

The Kosi River in the Himalayas once captured part of a tributary: the Arun River. It set off a chain of geological events that reshaped — and is still reshaping — the landscape, a new study has found.

Mount Everest's increasing height is attributed to the isostatic rebound caused by the merger of the Kosi and Arun rivers about 89,000 years ago. Acco