Land-based marginal ice cliffs: Focus on Kilimanjaro

Abstract: Land-based ice cliffs are intriguing features at the margins of glaciers around the world, but little is known about mechanisms of their formation and maintenance. A review on those ice cliffs, which are mostly associated with dry calving events, is presented. The focus is on the persistent, rarely-calving ice cliffs on the plateau glaciers of Kibo, the main peak of the Kilimanjaro massif (3°S, 37°E), Tanzania. Areal glacier shrinkage on Africa’s highest peak is closely linked to the recession of these ice cliffs and in order to extract climate change details from the plateau glaciers on Kilimanjaro, the sensitivity of the cliffs to climate fluctuations must be understood. Modelling solar irradiance, in conjunction with on-site measurements, revealed that direct insolation is the reason for (1) the predominant zonal alignment of the ice cliffs and (2) their bimodal annual recession. The former peculiarity occurs because near the equator steep north- and south-facing slopes receive .... https://www.erdkunde.uni-bonn.de/article/view/2652

Object Details

• Location: Deutsche Nationalbibliothek Frankfurt am Main
• Extent: Online-Ressource
• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Land-based marginal ice cliffs: Focus on Kilimanjaro ; volume:64 ; number:2 ; year:2010 ; Erdkunde ; 64, Heft 2 (2010)

Contributors, Places and Time

• Creator: Winkler, Michael ; Kaser, Georg ; Cullen, Nicolas J. ; Mölg, Thomas ; Hardy, Douglas R. ; Tad Pfeffer, W.

Further information

• DOI: 10.3112/erdkunde.2010.02.05
• URN: urn:nbn:de:101:1-2410281815586.788877100380
• Rights: Open Access; Der Zugriff auf das Objekt ist unbeschränkt möglich.
• Last update: 15.08.2025, 7:39 AM CEST