A new geological map of Mount Everest

A new preliminary version of a geological map of the Mount Everest region in Nepal and South Tibet is presented. Three field seasons were spent mapping on the south (Nepal) side of the mountain and one field season on the north (Rongbuk) and east (Kangchung) sides in South Tibet. High topographic levels were mapped in using the high-precision 1:50,000 aerial photos taken during the cartographic project to map Everest (National Geographic Society, 1988), as well as field photographs taken by climbers on Everest and a binocular survey. Structural mapping has also been combined with metamorphic, thermobarometric and U-Pb dating studies (Searle, 1999); Simpson et al., 2000). Previous geological maps of parts of the region include Yin and Kuo's (1978) map of the North face, maps of the Rongbuk monastery area by Burchfiel et al., (1992), Hodges et al. (1998) and Murphy and Harrison (1999), a map of the Nepal side of the Khumbu Himalaya by Searle (1999) and a larger map covering both the Nepal side and the Tibet sides (Carosi et al., 1998)