A Xinhua report from Beijing last week said Mount Everest is shrinking as a result of global warming. Scientists from the Chinese State Bureau of Surveying and Mapping said they had discovered that snow on the peak of Everest has thinned in the past 30 years. The Chinese researchers also discovered that Everest was moving between 2.4 and 2.8 inches at an azimuth angle of 54 degrees [northeast] every year! Surveys over the past 30 years show that changes have occurred in the area through crustal vertical movement, and experts said that these changes have resulted from a large rupture on the northern side of the mountain. Research also showed that the changes corresponded to different seismological periods.