If the Himalayas are a land of extremes from the
topographical, geophysical and geological point of view
(Windley 1984, 1988), the Karakorum is a land of superlative,
having the highest concentration of mountains beyond 8000
m, having the longest glaciers beyond the poles, being the
source of one of the longest rivers. From the
geophysical point of view it contains the largest
gravity anomalies (Poretti et al. 1983) and thickness of the
earth crust (75 km) (Finetti et al. 1978, 1983) and the highest
values of deflection of the vertical.
It contains also the highest relief (4000 m from the Indus
plains to the summit of Nanga Parbat). It seems also that this
area is subjected to the highest uplift. This has been mentioned
by many authors deriving it through indirect methods, but
not yet confirmed by accurate direct observations. Owen
(1981) reports 0.7 mm/year using fission-track methods.
Higher values (2 mm/year) are inferred by several researchers
(Zeitler 1985; Gorniz and Seeber 1981; Lyon-Caen and Molnar
1983; Ferguson 1985; Owen 1989). Finally an average value
of 6-10 mm/yr is in the hypothesis of Zeitler et al. (1985)
including uplift and erosion.
The present study presents the preliminary results of a
first survey consequent to the recent installation (2009) of
GNSS network including three permanent GNSS stations
between Islamabad and the northern areas of Pakistan and
four points located on the Nanga Parbat-Haramosh massif.
since a permanent GPS station was located near the Pyramid
Laboratory at Lobuche in the Khumbu region in 1994 providing
long records of data during the last 15 years; the goal of the
project is to compare data obtained from Everest with the
ones from Nanga Parbat in order to evaluate, not only the
total uplift (if quantifiable) of the two massifs, but also the
direction of the crustal movements.
