Scientists see the same albedo-changing effect of soot on alpine glaciers as on polar ice caps. Researchers say the ice fields on Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa's highest mountain, shrank by 80 percent in the past century. The snowcap formed some 11,000 years ago. The NASA and USGS Landsat satellite captured these images of Kilimanjaro on February 17, 1993 and Feb. 21, 2000. Some scientists believe the snowcap of Mount Kilimanjaro will be gone in two decades.
Credit: NASA/USGS
