Noel Odell, an adventurer, was the first to uncover marine fossils on Mount Everest in 1924, proving that the Mount Everest area was formerly covered by an ocean. The summit's limestone and sandstone were discovered to be submerged sedimentary rocks produced roughly 450 million years ago. Geologists believe Everest has only been a mountain for around 60 million years, when the Indian Plate was subducted by the Eurasian Plate, generating the Himalayas. If that's the case, Mount Everest must be growing quicker than in the past, as it would only take around 2 million years for Everest to rise 8,848 meters at current rates of 4 mm/year.