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| Above, Tanzania's Mount Kilimanjaro, made famous by writer Ernest Hemingway, is the only ice-capped peak on the African continent. Researchers believe that more than 80 percent of the ice fields atop the peak have wasted away within the last century, taking with them one of our most important records of past climate history. Below are shown some of the nearly 100 porters needed to carry drilling equipment from the end of the road to the top of Kilimanjaro. |
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At right, one of the expedition's off-road vehicles needed to carry tons of equipment to the base of Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania The analysis of the ice cores drilled from the mountaintop ice fields shows at least three major drought events in the last 11,700 years. Scientists believe that because of global warming, the ice cap will disappear within the next 15 years, and with it the climate records for centuries |
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