Aconcagua, the highest mountain in the Americas, is 2.4 metres higher than the 6 964 metres measured in 1989, according to new scientific research using state-of-the-art technology.

Aconcagua is located in the Andes in Argentina's Mendoza province.

Further research by a team of Argentine university researchers, the Argentine National Geographic Institute and Denmark's Space Institute is set to establish whether the mountain has actually risen due to plate tectonics or whether new instruments have produced a more precise measurement, the Argentine daily Clarin reported Thursday.

"We know it is moving, but it is millimetres per year, not two metres," said Maria Cristina Pacino, a member of the engineering faculty at Rosario National University.

An answer is expected within a month.

Researchers used a plane with modern radar, GPS and gravity-measuring equipment.

"Doing it from the ground is virtually impossible," Pacino said.