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]
List of glaciers edit
Kenya edit
(All located on the upper slopes of Mount Kenya[2])
- Mr. Ali Cesar Glacier
- Diamond Glacier
- Darwin Glacier (Kenya)
- Forel Glacier
- Gregory Glacier
- Heim Glacier
- Josef Glacier
- Kraph Glacier
- Lewis Glacier
- Northey Glacier
- Tyndall Glacier
Rwenzori Mountains edit
- Speke Glacier[3]
- Elena
- Stanley
- Baker
Tanzania edit
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]
- Arrow Glacier (a remnant of the formerly named Little Barranco Glacier)[5]
- Balletto Glacier
- Barranco Glacier (formerly known as Great Barranco Glacier)
- Credner Glacier
- Decken Glacier
- Gold Glacier
- Drygalski Glacier (vanished)
- Eastern Ice Field (Mount Kilimanjaro)
- Furtwängler Glacier
- Great Barranco Glacier (now known as Barranco Glacier)
- Great Penck Glacier (vanished)
- Heim Glacier
- Kersten Glacier
- Little Barranco Glacier (vanished, small remnant later named Arrow Glacier)[5]
- Little Penck Glacier
- Northern Ice Field (Mount Kilimanjaro)
- Ratzel Glacier
- Rebmann Glacier
- Southern Ice Field (Mount Kilimanjaro)
- Uhlig Glacier (vanished)
See also edit
References edit
- ^ "East African Highlands | ICCI – International Cryosphere Climate Initiative". Iccinet.org. Retrieved 2014-03-07.
- ^ Hastenrath, Stefan (1984). The Glaciers of Equatorial East Africa. Solid Earth Sciences Library. Kluwer Academic Publishers. ISBN 978-90-277-1572-2.
- ^ Kaser, Georg; Noggler, Bernd (1991). "Observations on Speke Glacier, Ruwenzori Range, Uganda". Journal of Glaciology. 37 (127): 313–318. Bibcode:1991JGlac..37..313K. doi:10.1017/S0022143000005736.
- ^ Young, James A.T. (1991). "Glaciers of the Middle East and Africa - Glaciers of Africa" (pdf). U. S. Geological Survey. Retrieved October 8, 2014.
- ^ a b N. J. Cullen; P. Sirguey; T. M¨olg; G. Kaser; M. Winkler; S. J. Fitzsimons (2013). "A century of ice retreat on Kilimanjaro: the mapping reloaded" (pdf). The Cryosphere. 7: 419–431. Bibcode:2013TCry....7..419C. doi:10.5194/tc-7-419-2013.
External links edit
- Vidal, John (June 2, 2012), "Race to map Africa's forgotten glaciers before they melt away", The Guardian, retrieved February 27, 2024
- Morrison, Dan (March 25, 2008), ""Mountains of the Moon" Glaciers Melting in Africa", National Geographic