i just completed a climb (actually a trek) up mt. kenya to ~16,000 ft (just under 5000 meters). while camping at the end of a valley at 4200 meters it looked like the valley ended in a "circ" like the kind that were carved out by glaciers in the northern & southern hemispheres . mt. kenya is on the equator & i didn't think that the big glacial periods extended that far from the poles.
2006-08-21 06:57:26 · 17 answers · asked by shai_14980 2 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Earth Sciences & Geology
Just because there is no glacier there now, doesnt mean that there wasnt one there before!
Back in the Ordivician and Silurian (270Ma ish) the earth was actually a giant snowball! The landmass was covered in snow and ice all at the same time. The land wasnt split into the countries and continents we see today; it was only one land mass. Im sure you have heard of plate techtonics, well due to this the large land mass breaking up and through millions of years of movement, we have ended up with what we have today. The plates are still moving to this day and given time, the land will eventually again become a giant snowball.
2006-08-21 09:28:55 · answer #1 · answered by A_Geologist 5 · 0⤊ 2⤋
Glaciation certainly extended in the tropics during the last glacial periods. There are similar glacial features in Papua New Guinea above about 3500m, and the western, Indonesian side of the New guinea island has an existing glacier that was much larger until about 10,000 years ago. Mount Kilimanjaro also has a (rapidly shrinking) glacier today, and evidence of glaciation well below the current snow line is seen in Ecuador and Peru.
Glacial advances in the Pleistocene Epoch took two forms; extension southward or northward from the poles, and downward from high mountains. Sometimes they would combine, as in the case of the Rocky Mountains sheet merging with the Canadian Shield sheet for a while.
2006-08-21 16:01:56 · answer #2 · answered by Paul FB 3 · 1⤊ 1⤋
THIS IS AN EASY ONE. THE POLES SHIFT 180 DEGREES ON AVERAGE EVERY TEN THOUSAND YEARS BUT NOT ALL AT ONCE. IF YOU READ THE AN ARTICLE IN THE USA TODAY FROM ABOUT THE LAST THREE MONTHS. SCIENTISTS DID A STUDY OF THE POLES THEY FOUND THE THE MAGNETIC NORTH POLE WHICH IS DEFERENT FROM TRUE NORTH WAS ACTUALLY OVER SIBERIA NOW NOT THE ARTIC AND IT MOVES AN AVERAGE OF TEN FEET A YEAR WHICH MEANS THAT THE ATMOSPHERIC OZONE CHANGES AROUND THE NORTH POLE.AND THE CLIMATE CAN CHANGE DRASTICALLY OVER A PERIOD OF TIME. THINK OF THIS IN GLACIER NATIONAL PARK IN NORTH AMERICA THERE ARENT HARDY ANY GLACIERS THERE ANYMORE. ALSO THE NORTHERN LIGHTS WILL ALMOST DISAPEER FROM OVER ALASKA INTHE COMEING YEARS DUE TO THE POLE MOVING. EVENTUALLY THE POLES WILL REACH THAT LATATUDE AND ONCE AGAIN GLACIERS WILL FORM. SO THAT COULD BE EXACTLY WHAT YOU SAW IN AFRICA.
2006-08-21 23:52:47 · answer #3 · answered by Jason & Robin M 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
In the last Ice age, the ice sheets extended as low as 45 degrees North in America and Southern Ukraine.
In mountainous regions however, glaciers are common today. Many can be found in the Alps
During the last ice age when it was cooler across the globe, Glaciers on Mt Kenya extended down to about 3000m
2006-08-21 14:13:04 · answer #4 · answered by Peakey 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Read the explanation given by Paul FB and Jason & Robin M. Then you will know that the earth poles are not constant but shifting. Once kenya was North or South Pole!
2006-08-25 09:16:25 · answer #5 · answered by QISHC 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Ice caps ( glaciers ) on tall mountains do not need to be
at the poles and were not part of the ice age ice caps that
extended towards the equator from the poles...
2006-08-21 18:58:34 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
I'm not familiar with that region personally, but remember that just because something is near the Equator now does NOT mean that it has always been there. Recall that Africa and South Amercan continents were jolly good neighbors, once, rubbing elbows not more than a mile from one another. Theoretically, Mt. Kenya may have been five, ten, thirty degrees from the equator a few dozen million years ago.
2006-08-21 14:06:32 · answer #7 · answered by Cstorm 5 · 0⤊ 3⤋
At that altitude the temperature is cold enough for glaciers to form. The Andes also have glaciers at the Equator.
2006-08-21 14:03:51 · answer #8 · answered by Red P 4 · 4⤊ 0⤋
Some people claim the Earth was a "snowball Earth" at one point. I don't believe it. Ask QFL-247. He loves the snowball Earth theory.
2006-08-22 16:01:51 · answer #9 · answered by SM 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋
I don't think that is an artifact of the glacial period, but rather an artifact of altitude. The higher it is the colder it is.
2006-08-21 14:05:39 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋