Science Times made a retrospective view at the 2005 scientific expedition to Mt Qomolangma by fifty plus scientific staff from CAS. From March 10, the publication and preparation for the activity, to June 10, the return of most crew to Beijing, this expedition team overcome all kinds of difficulties and accomplished many historical tasks in Tibetan Plateau research.
The new height measure and calculated by National Mapping Bureau is expected to be released early August. Chinese scientists also made thorough investigation to atmospheric physics in the Plateau region and collected samples for their study of the response of the Mt Qomolangma region to global change. Meanwhile, Chinese scientists also fixed up a set of automatic meteorological monitoring system and three sets of sampling systems for aresol at Yakou, 6500m a.s.l, thus filled in the data blank there.
During this complex expedition, nearly 2000 samples have been collected, including snow ice, rock, meterological data, aresol, plant, human hair. Among such a quantity of samples, there are also some very valuable rock samples and three twenty-plus-meter ice cores. From them, Chinese scientists planned to find out the correlation between anthropogenic activities and properties in the ice cores.
In addition, scientists also confirmed the rapid retreat of glaciers on the Plateau, esp. those on the northern slope of the Mt Qomolangma.
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