Ice core studies from Mt Kenya , Africa , and their relationship to other tropical ice core studies

Mt Kenya, located at the Earth's equator, is one of the few tropical mountain areas in the world where glaciers exist today. Two i ce cores to a depth o f 1 3.4 and 11.4 m were retrieved from the col (4870 m) between the Lewis and Gregory glaciers. Microparticle, oxygen isotope and total S radioactivity analyses were conducted. The results of these measurements, as well as those from other tropical glac i ers, indicate the lack of a clear relationship between 6 8 0 values and surface mean air temperature in tropical regions . In the few tropical areas where samples have been retrieved high particle concentrations tend to be correlative with high radioactivity. A compari son of the microparticles , oxygen isotopes and total S radioactivity for these limited areas is presented and their potential as palaeoclimatic indicators for low latitude glaciers is assessed.