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.
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.
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 Riss glaciation, Riss Glaciation, Riss ice age, Riss Ice Age, Riss glacial or Riss Glacial is the second youngest glaciation of the Pleistocene epoch in the traditional, quadripartite glacial classification of the Alps. The literature variously dates it to between about 300,000 to 130,000 years ago and 347,000 to 128,000 years ago. It coincides with the Saale glaciation of North Germany. The name goes back to Albrecht Penck and Eduard Brückner who named this cold period after the river Riss in Upper Swabia in their three-volume work Die Alpen im Eiszeitalter published between 1901 and 1909.
Thwaites Glacier is an unusually broad and vast Antarctic glacier located east of Mount Murphy, on the Walgreen Coast of Marie Byrd Land. It was initially sighted by polar researchers in 1940, mapped in 1959–1966 and officially named in 1967, after the late American glaciologist Fredrik T. Thwaites. The glacier flows into Pine Island Bay, part of the Amundsen Sea, at surface speeds which exceed 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) per year near its grounding line. Its fastest-flowing grounded ice is centered between 50 and 100 kilometres east of Mount Murphy. Like many other parts of the cryosphere, it has been adversely affected by climate change, and provides one of the more notable examples of the retreat of glaciers since 1850.
Lonnie Thompson, is an American paleoclimatologist and university professor in the School of Earth Sciences at Ohio State University. He has achieved global recognition for his drilling and analysis of ice cores from ice caps and mountain glaciers in the tropical and sub-tropical regions of the world. He and his wife, Ellen Mosley-Thompson, run the ice core paleoclimatology research group at the Byrd Polar Research Center.
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.
A supraglacial lake is any pond of liquid water on the top of a glacier. Although these pools are ephemeral, they may reach kilometers in diameter and be several meters deep. They may last for months or even decades at a time, but can empty in the course of hours.
The glacial series refers to a particular sequence of landforms in Central Europe that were formed during the Pleistocene glaciation beneath the ice sheets, along their margins and on their forelands during each glacial advance.
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.
Balletto 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 5,400 and 5,000 metres. Balletto Glacier is situated on the enormous 1,200-metre (3,900 ft) rock wall known as the "Breach Wall" and is below Diamond Glacier. The two glaciers are connected by an enormous icicle which hangs down the rock face as much as 90 m (300 ft).
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.
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.
