ABSTRACT
Moraines at – 4000 m on Mount Kenya have been assigned different radiocarbon ages, ranging from the late-Pleistocene to the mid- Holocene, by various investigators. Some workers consider that these moraines result from advances of Holocene ice out of local cirques, and still others, from stillstand following recession of late Pleistocene glaciers. New evidence presented here shows that moraines at ~ 4000 m a.s.l. are the result of stillstand following recession of Liki (Würm, Wisconsinan) ice on Mount Kenya. The minimum radiocarbon ages of bog and lacustrine sediments associated with several moraines in Teleki, Hausberg, and Liki North Valleys are approximately ~ 12,000 yr BP, placing them within the late glacial. The implications for reconstruction of late Pleistocene and Holocene paleoclimate are that no early or mid-Holocene glacial advances occurred and equilibrium line altitudes (ELA’s) of most cirque glaciers fluctuated by no more than 100 m during the Neoglacial which began at ~ 1000 yr BP.
