Kilimanjaro ice core records: evidence of holocene climate change in tropical Africa.
Six ice cores from Kilimanjaro provide an approximately 11.7-thousand-year record of Holocene climate and environmental variability for eastern equatorial Africa, including three periods of abrupt climate change: approximately 8.3, approximately 5.2, and approximately 4 thousand years ago (ka). The latter is coincident with the "First Dark Age," the period of the greatest historically recorded drought in tropical Africa. Variable deposition of F- and Na+ during the African Humid Period suggests rapidly fluctuating lake levels between approximately 11.7 and 4 ka. Over the 20th century, the areal extent of Kilimanjaro's ice fields has decreased approximately 80%, and if current climatological conditions persist, the remaining ice fields are likely to disappear between 2015 and 2020.
Thompson
Lonnie G
LG
Byrd Polar Research Center, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210, USA. thompson.3@osu.edu
Mosley-Thompson
Ellen
E
Davis
Mary E
ME
Henderson
Keith A
KA
Brecher
Henry H
HH
Zagorodnov
Victor S
VS
Mashiotta
Tracy A
TA
Lin
Ping-Nan
PN
Mikhalenko
Vladimir N
VN
Hardy
Douglas R
DR
Beer
Jürg
J