Expedition To Ruwenzori Mts. Finds Mapped Glacier "Simply Doesn't Exist Anymore" -

[hatrack]

The Mountains of the Moon are melting. The iconic glaciers of the Ruwenzori Mountains, which cast a thick and icy mist more than 16,000 feet (4,900 meters) above the Equator in central Africa, have shrunk by 50 percent over the past 50 years, says the conservation group WWF.



Photographs taken by members of a WWF expedition to the Ruwenzoris last month show a massive reduction in glacier size when compared with similar images from the 1950s, probably from increased temperatures or decreased humidity. One glacier, long noted on maps of the range, "simply doesn't exist anymore," said Marc Languy, who led the ten-day expedition. "We never set foot on a glacier in that part of the trek," he said.

Spanning the border of Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Ruwenzori peaks have been known since antiquity by their lunar nickname. The mountain range's glaciers are the highest water source for the Nile River. But the disappearance of this ice threatens dozens of plant and animal species that call the range home.

Leopards, chimpanzees, and other unique wildlife have adapted over thousands of years to the Ruwenzoris' unique conditions—the mountains rise through six separate "microclimates," climbing from forest to heather to icepack.

EDIT

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/03/080325-africa-glaciers.html

[gateley]

1. K&R --

Every day, it gets worse.

[jody]

2. Perhaps the snow on Mt Ararat will melt and allow search for the Ark exposing the myth. n/t

[hatrack]

3. Nah, they'd just "discover" a different version of the Old Testament on old-looking parchment . . .

And then they'd point to a translation error - revealing that it's K2, rather than Ararat.