1 Mount Kilimanjaro's Vanishing Snow Cap During the last few decades, the permanent snow and ice on the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro has almost completely disappeared, at the rate of about a foot and a half of glacial ice lost per year. This loss is primarily due to increasing average annual temperatures in the region, and scientists are speculating that the glaciers could be completely gone from Kilimanjaro by the year 2015. This ice cap formed more that 11,000 years ago, and 80% of the ice fields have been lost in only the last century. The shrinkage is illustrated here in Landsat images from 1993, 2000, and 2002, with the 1993 image showing a significant ice cap and the more recent images showing only small glaciers and snow regions remaining. Animation (2048x2048) An animation of the shrinking snow cap on Mount Kilimanjaro from Landsat imagery 1 0 1993-02-17 2009-06-05T23:59:59Z 1993-02-17 1 1 1993-02-17 2000-02-20T23:59:59Z http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a000000/a003100/a003125/frames/2048x2048/mtk.0000.png -3.35296 -2.8 37.04 37.59296 2000-02-21 1 1 2000-02-21 2002-06-01T23:59:59Z http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a000000/a003100/a003125/frames/2048x2048/mtk.0001.png -3.35296 -2.8 37.04 37.59296 2002-06-02 1 1 2002-06-02 2009-06-05T23:59:59Z http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a000000/a003100/a003125/frames/2048x2048/mtk.0002.png -3.35296 -2.8 37.04 37.59296