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Updated: Nov 13, 2025

Using Generative Art to Convey Past and Future Climate Transitions
Published on: March 31, 2023
Nonuniform Late Pleistocene glacier fluctuations in tropical Eastern Africa
Alexander R Groos1, Naki Akçar2, Serdar Yesilyurt2,3
1Institute of Geography, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland. alexander.groos@giub.unibe.ch.
Abstract:
Today's ice caps and glaciers in Africa are restricted to the highest peaks, but during the Pleistocene, several mountains on the continent were extensively glaciated. However, little is known about regional differences in the timing and extent of past glaciations and the impact of paleoclimatic changes on the afro-alpine environment and settlement history. Here, we present a glacial chronology for the Ethiopian Highlands in comparison with other East African Mountains. In the Ethiopian Highlands, glaciers reached their maximum 42 to 28 thousand years ago before the global Last Glacial Maximum. The local maximum was accompanied by a temperature depression of 4.4° to 6.0°C and a ~700-m downward shift of the afro-alpine vegetation belt, reshaping the human and natural habitats. The chronological comparison reveals that glaciers in Eastern Africa responded in a nonuniform way to past climatic changes, indicating a regionally varying influence of precipitation, temperature, and orography on paleoglacier dynamics.
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