Africa, specifically East Africa, has contained glacial regions, possibly as far back as the last glacial maximum 10,000 to 15,000 years ago. Seasonal snow does exist on the highest peaks of East Africa as well as in the Drakensberg Range of South Africa, the Stormberg Mountains, and the Atlas Mountains in Morocco. Currently, the only remaining glaciers on the continent exist on Mount Kilimanjaro, Mount Kenya, and the Rwenzori. [1]
(All located on the upper slopes of Mount Kenya [2] )
All Tanzanian glaciers are located on the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro. The mountain had 16 named glaciers and three icefields in the middle of the 20th century but by the 1990s, at least 4 glaciers had disappeared and the remaining glaciers had retreated. [4]
A glacier is a persistent body of dense ice that is constantly moving under its own weight. A glacier forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation over many years, often centuries. It acquires distinguishing features, such as crevasses and seracs, as it slowly flows and deforms under stresses induced by its weight. As it moves, it abrades rock and debris from its substrate to create landforms such as cirques, moraines, or fjords. Although a glacier may flow into a body of water, it forms only on land and is distinct from the much thinner sea ice and lake ice that form on the surface of bodies of water.
The cryosphere is an all-encompassing term for the portions of Earth's surface where water is in solid form, including sea ice, lake ice, river ice, snow cover, glaciers, ice caps, ice sheets, and frozen ground. Thus, there is a wide overlap with the hydrosphere. The cryosphere is an integral part of the global climate system with important linkages and feedbacks generated through its influence on surface energy and moisture fluxes, clouds, precipitation, hydrology, atmospheric and oceanic circulation.
Mount Kilimanjaro is a dormant volcano located in Kilimanjaro Region of Tanzania. It has three volcanic cones: Kibo, Mawenzi, and Shira. It is the highest mountain in Africa and the highest single free-standing mountain above sea level in the world: 5,895 m (19,341 ft) above sea level and about 4,900 m (16,100 ft) above its plateau base. It is the highest volcano in Africa and the Eastern Hemisphere.
The Ruwenzori, also spelled Rwenzori and Rwenjura, or Rwenzururu are a range of mountains in eastern equatorial Africa, located on the border between Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The highest peak of the Ruwenzori reaches 5,109 metres (16,762 ft), and the range's upper regions are permanently snow-capped and glaciated. Rivers fed by mountain streams form one of the sources of the Nile. Because of this, European explorers linked the Ruwenzori with the legendary Mountains of the Moon, claimed by the Greek scholar Ptolemy as the source of the Nile. Virunga National Park in eastern DR Congo and Rwenzori Mountains National Park in southwestern Uganda are located within the range.
Mount Kenya is an extinct volcano in Kenya and the second-highest peak in Africa, after Kilimanjaro. The highest peaks of the mountain are Batian, Nelion and Point Lenana. Mount Kenya is located in the former Eastern and Central provinces of Kenya; its peak is now the intersection of Meru, Embu, Kirinyaga, Nyeri and Tharaka Nithi counties, about 16.5 kilometres south of the equator, around 150 km (90 mi) north-northeast of the capital Nairobi. Mount Kenya is the source of the name of the Republic of Kenya.
The Last Glacial Period (LGP), also known colloquially as the Last Ice Age or simply Ice Age, occurred from the end of the Last Interglacial to the end of the Younger Dryas, encompassing the period c. 115,000 – c. 11,700 years ago.
The Byrd Polar and Climate Research Center (BPCRC) is a polar, alpine, and climate research center at The Ohio State University founded in 1960.
The retreat of glaciers since 1850 is well documented and is one of the effects of climate change. The retreat of mountain glaciers, notably in western North America, Asia, the Alps and tropical and subtropical regions of South America, Africa and Indonesia, provide evidence for the rise in global temperatures since the late 19th century. The acceleration of the rate of retreat since 1995 of key outlet glaciers of the Greenland and West Antarctic ice sheets may foreshadow a rise in sea level, which would affect coastal regions. Excluding peripheral glaciers of ice sheets, the total cumulated global glacial losses over the 26-year period from 1993 to 2018 were likely 5500 gigatons, or 210 gigatons per yr.
Furtwangler Glacier is located near the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. The glacier is named after Walter Furtwängler who, with Siegfried König, formed the fourth party to ascend to the summit of Kilimanjaro in 1912.
The Rebmann Glacier is an active glacier located near the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. It is a small remnant of an enormous ice cap which once crowned Kilimanjaro. This ice cap has retreated significantly over the past century; between 1912 and 2000, 82 percent of the glacial ice on the mountain disappeared.
The climate of Mount Kenya has played a critical role in the development of the mountain, influencing the topography and ecology amongst other factors. The area around Mount Kenya is covered by a comparably large number of weather station data with long measurements series and thus the climate is well recorded. It has a typical equatorial mountain climate which Hedberg described as winter every night and summer every day.
Arrow Glacier is located near the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, on the west slope of the peak and is a small remnant of an icecap which once crowned the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro. The glacier is situated at an elevation of between 5,470 and 5,300 metres. Arrow Glacier is adjacent to a climbing route known as the Western Breach/Arrow Glacier Route or more commonly, the Lemosho Route. Arrow Glacier is a recently named glacial remnant that may not even exist as of 2011. It was what remained of an earlier glacier known as the Little Barranco Glacier.
Barranco Glacier is near the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, on the southwest slope of the peak and is a small remnant of an icecap which once crowned the top of Mount Kilimanjaro. The glacier is situated at an elevation of between 5,200 and 4,800 metres. The Great Barranco Glacier was far larger when first documented in the late 19th century and it along with the now extinct Little Barranco Glacier may have been fed by the Furtwängler Glacier which is on the top of the mountain. By 2011, Barranco Glacier was reduced to two small disconnected and dormant ice bodies.
Credner Glacier is on Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, on the northwest slope of the peak and is a remnant of an icecap which once crowned the top of Mount Kilimanjaro. The glacier is situated at an elevation of between 5,800 and 5,500 metres. Credner Glacier is one of the largest glaciers on the mountain and descends from the Northern Ice Field. Credner is rapidly retreating due to its high exposure point on the northwest slope of Mount Kilimanjaro. A report published in 2013 indicated that in another decade the glacier may no longer exist.
Drygalski Glacier was on Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, on the northwest slope of the peak. The glacier terminus once extended to an elevation of 4,800 metres (15,700 ft) with an origination point near the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro and was fed by the Northern Ice Field. The Great Penck Glacier once flanked Drygalski Glacier to the south and until recently, the Credner Glacier did as well to the north. Drygalski Glacier is named for German geographer Erich von Drygalski.
Great Penck Glacier was on Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, on the west slope of the peak. Extending from the Northern Ice Field, the glacier once flowed 2.4 kilometres (1.5 mi), to an elevation of 4,750 metres (15,580 ft). Between the years 1962 and 1975, Great Penck Glacier separated from the Northern Icefield and disappeared. Drygalski Glacier once also existed to the north of Great Penck, while the same is true of the Little Penck Glacier, which was to the south.
Little Penck Glacier is on Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, on the west slope of the peak. Once extending from the Northern Ice Field, the glacier detached from the icefield by 1992. A sizeable but stagnant ice body remains near the 1912 historical terminal end of the glacier. The now vanished Great Penck and Uhlig Glaciers once flanked Little Penck Glacier to the north and south, respectively.
The Northern Ice Field is near the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, on the west slope of the peak. The Northern Ice Field and Eastern Ice Fields were connected to the Southern Ice Field and formed part of a continuous body of glacial ice atop Mount Kilimanjaro when first scientifically examined in 1912. By 1962 the Southern Ice Field separated from the Northern Ice Field and then by 1975 the Eastern Ice Field did as well. In 1912, the glaciated areas atop Mount Kilimanjaro covered 11.40 square kilometres (4.40 sq mi); by 2011 this had been reduced to 1.76 square kilometres (0.68 sq mi), an 85 percent loss. At one time, ice flowing off the Northern Ice Field fed numerous glaciers, including, north to south, the Credner, Drygalski, Great Penck and Little Penck Glaciers.
25zero is a mountaineering project, tracking equatorial glacial melt and raising awareness of the impacts of climate change, led by explorer Tim Jarvis AM. The project was founded in 2014, and focussed on bringing live footage from the peaks of three mountain glaciers to the 37,000 delegates at the COP21 summit in 2015 in Paris, France, as a way of showcasing the impact of global warming on vulnerable and remote areas.