The Editor,

The Journal of Glaciology

Sir,

Recently a leading Sunday newspaper published an aerial photograph of the Kibo summit of Kilimanjaro. This photograph was taken by a B.O.A.C. aircraft within recent months. I have been fully aware of the rapid retreat and desiccation of the Kilimanjaro glaciers which were discussed in my paper published in the Journal of Glaciology, Vol. 1, No. 5, 1949, p. 277–81. This photograph brought home to me with a shock how rapid the process has become since the mid 1940s.

Aerial photographs of the same glaciers taken in 1943 showed erosion around the edges but the main firn surfaces were still intact. This particular photograph shows very severe ablation effects over almost the whole surface of the North Glacier in the foreground with the Credner and Drygalski Glaciers to the right showing the same degree of deterioration. Yet less than ten years ago one could have skied on those surfaces.

One can only assume that the rest of the intact glaciers of Kibo have suffered to a similar extent, which lends confirmation to my gloomy prognosis made some years ago that these rare equatorial glaciers will have almost completely disappeared within one or two centuries, provided there is a continuance of the dry climate oscillation which East Africa is at present experiencing.

Quite unwittingly this Sunday paper has provided me with the means of a rough check on the rate of regression of the Kibo glaciers since my last visit in 1945. I have on several occasions appealed for the institution of a series of annual photographic comparative checks, both aerial and at ground level, of these interesting surviving remains of the former ice cap, and I had hoped that this might have been undertaken systematically by a responsible body domiciled in East Africa. Such a service would be of utmost interest to glaciologists and climatologists alike.