Continued Decrease of Ice-Flow Velocity at Lewis Glacier, Mount Kenya, East Africa

Abstract

AbstractOur earlier monitoring program on Lewis Glacier, Mount Kenya, indicated a slow-down of the ice flow to January 1982, while based on the numerical modeling of the ice dynamics a further drastic decrease of the ice flow was predicted from the 1978 to the 1985 datum. This paper presents velocity measurements over the years 1982–83, 1984, and 1985. Changes of ice-flow conditions from 1978 to the mid 1980s are characterized by a velocity decrease by nearly half; a decrease of the maximum mass flux by more than half; a flattening and up-glacier shift of the velocity and mass-flux maxima; an up-glacier displacement of the transition between prevailingly longitudinal crevasses in the lower glacier and transverse crevasses in the upper glacier; and a terminus retreat by about 50 m. In consequence of the very weak ice flow remaining in Lewis Glacier, thinning and terminus retreat of the glacier are now primarily controlled by the in-situ net balance.