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Kilimanjaro Ice Core Records: Evidence of Holocene Climate Change in Tropical Africa
Lonnie G. Thompson,12*Ellen Mosley-Thompson,13Mary E. Davis,12Keith A. Henderson,12Henry H. Brecher,1Victor S. Zagorodnov,12Tracy A. Mashiotta,1Ping-Nan Lin,1Vladimir N. Mikhalenko,4Douglas R. Hardy,5Jürg Beer6
Six ice cores from Kilimanjaro provide an
~11.7-thousand-year record of Holocene climate and environmental
variability foreastern equatorial Africa, including three periods of
abrupt climatechange: ~8.3, ~5.2, and ~4 thousand years ago
(ka). The latteris coincident with the "First Dark Age," the
period of the greatesthistorically recorded drought in tropical
Africa. Variable depositionof F- and Na+
during the African Humid Period suggests rapidly fluctuatinglake
levels between ~11.7 and 4 ka. Over the 20th century, theareal
extent of Kilimanjaro's ice fields has decreased ~80%, andif
current climatological conditions persist, the remaining icefields are
likely to disappear between 2015 and 2020.
1 Byrd Polar Research Center,
2 Department of Geological Sciences,
3 Department of Geography, The Ohio State
University, Columbus, OH 43210, USA.
4 Institute of
Geography, Moscow, Russia.
5 Department of
Geosciences, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA 01003-9297, USA.
6 Swiss Federal Institute for Environmental Science
and Technology (EAWAG) Duebendorf, Switzerland.
*
To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail:
thompson.3{at}osu.edu
Inaugural Article: Abrupt tropical climate change: Past and present.
L. G. Thompson, E. Mosley-Thompson, H. Brecher, M. Davis, B. Leon, D. Les, P.-N. Lin, T. Mashiotta, and K. Mountain (2006)
PNAS
103, 10536-10543
|Abstract »|Full Text »|PDF »
Cupressus dupreziana: a dendroclimatic record for the middle-late Holocene in the central Sahara.
M. Cremaschi, M. Pelfini, and M. Santilli (2006)
The Holocene
16, 293-303
|Abstract »|PDF »
A severe centennial-scale drought in midcontinental North America 4200 years ago and apparent global linkages.
R. K. Booth, S. T. Jackson, S. L. Forman, J. E. Kutzbach, E. A. Bettis III, J. Kreigs, and D. K. Wright (2005)
The Holocene
15, 321-328
|Abstract »|PDF »
Palaeosols in Saharan and Sahelian dunes of Chad: archives of Holocene North African climate changes.
B. Mauz and P. Felix-Henningsen (2005)
The Holocene
15, 453-458
|Abstract »|PDF »
Vegetation history in western Uganda during the last 1200 years: a sedimentbased reconstruction from two crater lakes.
I. Ssemmanda, I. Ssemmanda, D. B. Ryves, O. Bennike, and P. G. Appleby (2005)
The Holocene
15, 119-132
|Abstract »|PDF »
48,000 Years of Climate and Forest Change in a Biodiversity Hot Spot.
