ABSTRACT
Kilimanjaro (5895m) is the highest mountain in Africa, with a present glacier cover of about 5 sq.km. During five former glaciations the glaciers extended to about 150 sq.km, leaving distinctive and well-preserved moraines in the case of the Main Glaciation (probably equivalent to Wurm, Devensian, Wisconsin). The extents of both present and past glaciers differed greatly on different aspects of the mountain, having a consistently asymmetric pattern related to the local weather system, so particular care is needed in the correlation and interpretation of moraines and the inferences drawn from them. The overall view provided by airphotos and the application of criteria based on a consistent glaciological model have resulted in interpretations which differ from those of previous workers in certain critical areas such as Shira and the W. Saddle, which are thus identified as needing further examination. In general, however, the use of glaciologically based calculations, (the Area-Height-Accumulation method, AHA, originally developed by Kurowski) have yielded reliable estimates of the Equilibrium Line Altitudes of the glaciers at different stages and on different sectors of the mountain. Thus the estimated ELAs of the present glaciers on the NE and SW aspects of Kibo peak are respectively 5730m and 5360m, while in the Main Glaciation they were 5180m and 4570m, i.e. a within-glaciation difference of 370–610m and a between-glaciation difference of 550–790m, rising to 1100m elsewhere. The average best estimate of the difference between present and Main Glaciation ELAs is 850 +100m. Using a locally checked lapse rate of 7°C per 1000m altitude, this represents a crude temperature difference of 6.0° ±0.7°C.
