title: Kilimanjaro ice core records: evidence of holocene climate change in tropical Africa.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Byrd Polar Research Center, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210, USA. thompson.3@osu.edu
authors.forename: Lonnie G
authors.initials: LG
authors.lastname: Thompson
authors.forename: Ellen
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Mosley-Thompson
authors.forename: Mary E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Davis
authors.forename: Keith A
authors.initials: KA
authors.lastname: Henderson
authors.forename: Henry H
authors.initials: HH
authors.lastname: Brecher
authors.forename: Victor S
authors.initials: VS
authors.lastname: Zagorodnov
authors.forename: Tracy A
authors.initials: TA
authors.lastname: Mashiotta
authors.forename: Ping-Nan
authors.initials: PN
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.forename: Vladimir N
authors.initials: VN
authors.lastname: Mikhalenko
authors.forename: Douglas R
authors.initials: DR
authors.lastname: Hardy
authors.forename: Jürg
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Beer