| Vanishing snows of Kilimanjaro |
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| Written by Administrator | |
| Sunday, 08 November 2009 | |
 Legendary eternal snows of Kilimanjaro (summit in Tanzania, near the border with Kenya) may soon remain only a memory and the title of the novel by Ernest Hemingway - results from research published on Monday, evidence of warming of the Earth. The accelerated melting of mountain glaciers worldwide is perhaps the most convincing indicator of rising temperatures - think American who made the measurements. White caps covering the top of Mount Kilimanjaro is melting rapidly: Approximately 85 percent of the ice, which in 1912 created the glaciers disappeared until 2007 - said the head of research professor of earth sciences at the University of Lonnie Thompson, Ohio, a state in an article published in the Tuesday edition of "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Until 2007, disappeared more than a quarter of ice, which still lay on Kilimanjaro in 2000. If current conditions persist, "the tip of the ice fields of Kilimanjaro, not to survive" - the researchers write. Similar changes take effect on the massif of Mount Kenya and Ruwenzori in Central Africa, the Andes in South America and the Himalayas. - The fact that the same is happening with so many glaciers throughout the tropics and sub-tropical zone, suggesting a common cause of this phenomenon - Thompson announced in a statement. - Rising temperatures near the ground, coupled with even greater increase in middle and upper troposphere, as documented in recent decades, at least partially explains these changes. According to him, to a lesser extent, the impact of melting glaciers to changes in cloudiness and precipitation of snow. Kilimanjaro glacier on the north side in 2000-2007 by nearly 2 meters, and south - with more than 5 meters. The researchers compared the current area occupied by a glacier with maps drawn on the basis of photographs taken in 1912 and 1953 year, and satellite images from the years 1976-1989. "Snows of Kilimanjaro," Hemingway appeared in 1936. |
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| Last Updated ( Sunday, 22 November 2009 ) |
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