Snow Cap Melting Away Atop Mount Kilimanjaro

Boston (DbTechNo) – Scientists are forecasting that the snow cap found atop Mount Kilimanjaro will be totally gone before the end of this century.

They state that right now up to 85% of the glacier ice that was found on top of the mountain has dicipated, and no slow down is in sight.

Since 2000, the peak has lost up to 26% of its ice, a bad sign for sure as the climate continues to heat up.

Writing in Tuesday’s edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the team lead by paleoclimatologist Lonnie Thompson of Ohio State University says that if current conditions stay the same, there is no hope for the glaciers.

To measure the ice, the research team relied on photos taken from the air, along with instrument readings from devices planted atop the mountain.

“The fact that so many glaciers throughout the tropics and subtropics are showing similar responses suggests an underlying common cause,” Thompson said in a statement. “The increase of Earth’s near surface temperatures, coupled with even greater increases in the mid- to upper-tropical troposphere, as documented
in recent decades, would at least partially explain.”

• Share
• Tweet
• "&title=""">