 The snow cap of Mount Kilimanjaro, famed in literature and beloved by tourists, first formed some 11,000 years ago, but will be gone in two decades, according to researchers who say the ice fields on Africa's highest mountain shrank by 80 percent in the past century.
Lonnie G. Thompson of Ohio State University said measurements using ice corings and modern navigation satellites show that the oldest ice layers on the famed mountain were deposited during an extremely wet period starting about 11,700 years ago. The mountain is enshrined in literature, most notably Ernest Hemingway's "The Snows of Kilimanjaro" and some ancient beliefs in Africa hold the mountain to be a sacred place. But a temperature rise in recent years is eroding the 150-foot-high blocks of ice that gave Kilimanjaro its distinctive white cap. "The ice will be gone by about 2020," said Thompson. The diminishing ice already has reduced the amount of water in some Tanzanian rivers and the government fears that when Kilimanjaro is bald of snow the tourists will stop coming. "Kilimanjaro is the number one foreign currency earner for the government of Tanzania," said Thompson. "It has its own international airport and some 20,000 tourists every year. The question is how many will come if there are no ice fields on the mountain." Africa was not alone in the global drought. Thompson said other records show that civilizations during this period collapsed in India, the Middle East and South America. Researchers put markers atop the ice field blocks in 1962 and Thompson said measurements using satellites show the summit of the ice has been lowered by about 56 feet in 40 years. The margin of the ice also has retreated more than six feet in the past two years. "That's more than two meter's worth of ice lost from a wall 164 feet (50 meters) high," said Thompson. "That's an enormous amount of ice." (Agencies) | 乞力馬扎羅山上的雪形成于大約11000多年前，不論在文壇上，還是在旅游觀光業(yè)中，它都始終保持著一種獨特的魅力。然而，科學家卻告訴我們，在過去的一個世紀中，這座非洲最高山峰的"雪帽"已經(jīng)"縮水"了80%，再過二十年，乞力馬扎羅山上的雪景就要消失了。 俄亥俄州立大學的朗尼·湯普遜說，通過冰層取樣和現(xiàn)代衛(wèi)星定位系統(tǒng)的測量，研究人員發(fā)現(xiàn)這座名山上最古老的冰層是在約11700年前一段特別潮濕的時期形成的。 在文學史上，大名鼎鼎的海明威曾著有《乞力馬扎羅的雪》一書，從而讓人們對這片土地心存一份特殊的情結，再加上一些古老的非洲傳說，更是令這座山顯得神秘而令人向往。  但是近幾年來，由于氣溫的不斷上升，乞力馬扎羅山頂上厚達150英尺的積雪正在一點一點溶化。
湯普遜預言說："所有的冰層將在2020年融化掉。"由于積雪大大減少，長久以來依靠這座山積雪溶化供給的坦桑尼亞境內(nèi)，一些河流的水量已經(jīng)開始減少。當?shù)卣畵模?雪帽"被摘掉，當?shù)氐穆糜螛I(yè)就會遭遇滅頂之災。 湯普遜還說："乞力馬扎羅的旅游資源是坦桑尼亞政府最主要的外匯來源。當?shù)亟ㄓ袊H機場，每年約有2萬游客慕名而至。如今的問題是，如果沒有了山頂積雪，恐怕就沒人會去了。" 在全世界，并不只有非洲遭受了這樣的一種干旱枯竭。湯普遜說統(tǒng)計表明，同期的文明在印度、中東和南美洲地區(qū)都出現(xiàn)了衰退現(xiàn)象。 湯普遜說，1962年研究者在冰層上做了標志，現(xiàn)在發(fā)現(xiàn)，山頂?shù)姆e雪厚度在40年中下降了56英尺。僅僅兩年時間，冰層的邊緣就"縮水"了至少6英尺。 他說："這絕不是一面50米（164英尺）高的冰墻降低2米那么簡單，這個數(shù)字意味著大量的冰雪已經(jīng)消失了。" （中國日報網(wǎng)站譯） |
Updated: 2002-10-21 01:00
