The Furtwängler Glacier is located near the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. Furtwängler Glacier is a small remnant of an enormous icecap which once crowned the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro. This icecap has retreated significantly over the past century; between 1912 and 2000, 82 percent of the glacial ice on the mountain has disappeared.
The retreat of glacial ice on the summit is expected to continue and by the year 2020, all the glaciers on top of the mountain may be gone, although seasonal snows will continue to cover the higher sections of the mountain for several months of the year. The glacier is named after Walter Furtwängler, who along with Siegfried König, were the fourth to ascend to the summit of Kilimanjaro in 1912.
Between measurements in 1976 and 2000, the area of Furtwängler Glacier was cut almost in half, from 113,000 sq m to 60,000 sq m. During fieldwork conducted early in 2006, scientists discovered a large hole near the center of the glacier. This hole, extending through the 6 meter (20 ft) remaining thickness of the glacier to the underlying rock, was expected to grow and split the glacier in two by 2007.
The demise of the Furtwängler Glacier, and the other remaining Kilimanjaro glaciers, may reduce tourism because the novelty of glacier ice in proximity to the equator is one of the attractions of the area. Even more immediate is the potential adverse impact on the availability of fresh water from springs and wells that are partially supplied by glacier melt. An investigation of the fraction of fresh water supplied by this source is underway.
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