The K2 (also Mt. Godwin-Austen) is the highest mountain peak in the Karakoram Mountain Range in Central Asia, lying on the border between Pakistan and China. Also known by its local name Mt. Chogori, this peak rises to an elevation of 8,611 m (28,251 feet), making it the second highest mountain in the world after Mt. Everest (8,848 m). The K2 has steep sides and prone to avalanche; therefore, it is very difficult and dangerous to climb. At the base, the K2 is surround by large glaciers, such as the Baltoro Glacier that lies along the southern slope. Water streams originate from melting ice from glaciers located on the south and east side, supplying crop fields in the valleys below.
Exploration and climbing
K2 was first surveyed in 1861 by the British explorer Henry H. Godwin-Austen, who fixed its height at 8,611 m. Godwin-Austin explored the south and east side of Chogori, drawing maps of the region. The mountain was first ascended on July 31, 1954 by the Italians Lino Lacedelli and Achille Compagnoni. The second successful climb of K2 was the Japanese expedition led by Ichiro Yoshizawa, who reached the summit of K2 on August 9, 1977, 23 years after the first successful climb. In 1979, it was climbed by Reinhold Messner, who did not use oxygen equipment. The Spanish climber Carlos Soria Fontan was the oldest man to reach the summit of K2 in 2004, at the age of 65 years.
Geology
The K2 is composed of plutonic-igneous and metamorphic rocks, such as granites and gneisses respectively. Mt. Godwin-Austen has the same orogenesis of the mountain range it belongs to (the Karakoram Range of the Great Himalayas). Thus, it is a young mountain, whose formation began some 50 million years ago, during the Tertiary period of the Cenozoic era. It is the result of the collision and subduction of two tectonic plates: the Indian plate which constantly pushes against the Eurasian plate, creating faults and folds that were raised to high altitudes. The granitic precursor (protolith) to the K2 gneiss originated as the result of the production of large bodies of magma by a northward-dipping subduction zone along what used to be the continental margin of Asia at that time and their intrusion as batholiths into its lower continental crust.
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| Above, the K2, among other peaks of the Karakoram mountains. |
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| A north side view of Mt. Chogori |
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| A south-side view of K2. Picture taken in 1969. |