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Kilimanjaro Ice Core Records

Evidence of Holocene Climate Change in Tropical Africa

Bibliographic Data

ID23357493
AuthorsLonnie G Thompson (0000-0001-5371-2579, Byrd Polar Research Center, corresponding author), Ellen Mosley-Thompson (0000-0002-9665-3705, Byrd Polar Research Center), Mary E Davis (0000-0003-3771-8289, Byrd Polar Research Center), Keith Henderson (0009-0003-2629-5767, Office of Polar Programs), Keith A Henderson (Byrd Polar Research Center), Henry H Brecher (Byrd Polar Research Center), Victor S Zagorodnov (Byrd Polar Research Center), V Zagorodnov (Office of Polar Programs), Tracy A Mashiotta (Byrd Polar Research Center), Ping-Nan Lin (Byrd Polar Research Center), Ping‐Nan Lin (0000-0001-6006-0716, Office of Polar Programs), Vladimir N Mikhalenko (0000-0001-6097-9861, Institute of Geography, Moscow, Russia.), Douglas R Hardy (0000-0002-0420-6407, Department of Geosciences, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA 01003–9297, USA.), Jürg Beer (Swiss Federal Institute for Environmental Science and Technology (EAWAG) Duebendorf, Switzerland.)
Year2002
Volume298
Issue5593
Pages589-593
Publication date2002-10-18
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueScience (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0036-8075 • E-ISSN: 0193-4511
PublisherAmerican Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1126/science.1073198
PMID12386332
OpenAlexW2119986263
LanguageEN
Citations received136
References cited29

Six ice cores from Kilimanjaro provide an ∼11.7-thousand-year record of Holocene climate and environmental variability for eastern equatorial Africa, including three periods of abrupt climate change: ∼8.3, ∼5.2, and ∼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 ∼11.7 and 4 ka. Over the 20th century, the areal extent of Kilimanjaro's ice fields has decreased ∼80%, and if current climatological conditions persist, the remaining ice fields are likely to disappear between 2015 and 2020.

Climate change · Climatology · Geography · Holocene · Ice core · Period (music) · Physical geography · Geological formations and processes · Geology · Geology and Paleoclimatology Research · Oceanography · Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology

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Unique citing works136
Citations per year5,91
Citation span2003 - 2026 (24)
Citation velocitycurrent
Highly citedYes
Citation typesNeutral: 114
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