The
Furtwängler Glacier is located near the
summitIn topography, a summit is a point on a surface that is higher in elevation than all points immediately adjacent to it. Mathematically, a summit is a local maximum in elevation...
of
Mount KilimanjaroKilimanjaro, with its three volcanic cones, Kibo, Mawenzi, and Shira, is an inactive stratovolcano in north-eastern Tanzania rising from its base , and is additionally the highest peak in Africa at , providing a dramatic view of the surrounding plains.-Climatic conditions:While the volcano appears...
in
TanzaniaThe United Republic of Tanzania is a country in central East Africa bordered by Kenya and Uganda to the north, Rwanda, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west, and Zambia, Malawi and Mozambique to the south. The country's eastern borders lie on the Indian Ocean.The United...
. Furtwängler Glacier is a small remnant of an enormous
icecapAn ice cap is an ice mass that covers less than 50 000 km² of land area . Masses of ice covering more than 50 000 km² are termed an ice sheet....
which once crowned the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro. This icecap has retreated significantly over the past century and between 1912 and the 2000, 82 percent of the glacial ice on the mountain has disappeared. The retreat of
glacialA glacier is a perennial mass of ice which moves over land. A glacier forms in locations where the mass accumulation of snow and ice exceeds ablation over many years...
ice on the summit is expected to continue and by the year 2020, all the glaciers on top of the mountain may be gone, although seasonal snows will continue to cover the higher sections of the mountain for several months of the year. The glacier is named after Walter Furtwängler, who along with Ziegfried Koenig, were the fourth to ascend to the summit of Kilimanjaro in 1912.
Between measurements in 1976 and 2000, the area of Furtwängler Glacier was cut almost in half, from 113,000 m² to 60,000 m². During fieldwork conducted early in 2006, scientists discovered a large hole near the center of the glacier. This hole, extending through the 6 meter (20 ft) remaining thickness of the glacier to the underlying rock, is expected to grow and split the glacier in two by 2007.
The 2006 study found that no new glacial ice has accumulated on any of the glaciers on the mountain in the 21st century. This may mark the termination of a unique 11,700 year record of climate variability in Africa. Only
ice coreAn ice core is a core sample from the accumulation of snow and ice over many years that have re-crystallized and have trapped air bubbles from previous time periods...
s previously obtained and preserved in the freezers of the laboratories of glaciologists will remain.
The demise of the Furtwängler Glacier, and the other remaining Kilimanjaro glaciers, may reduce tourism because the novelty of glacier ice in proximity to the equator is one of the attractions of the area. Even more immediate is the potential adverse impact on the availability of fresh water from springs and wells that are partially supplied by glacier melt. An investigation of the fraction of
fresh waterFresh Water is the debut album by Australian rock and blues singer Alison McCallum, released in 1972. Rare for an Australian artist at the time, it came in a gatefold sleeve...
supplied by this source is underway.