The multi-peak summit of Africa's Mount Stanley, capped by its shrinking glaciers.
An equatorial glacier on Uganda’s Mount Stanley has split due to excessive melting caused by climate change, authorities say.
Hikers attempting to reach the summit of the mountain’s Margherita Peak had to turn back after discovering they could no longer use the melted 20-foot section of the glacier as a bridge.
The director of Uganda’s National Environment Management Authority told the Daily Monitor that the entire glacier on Africa’s third-highest mountain is melting so rapidly that it will disappear entirely within 40 years.
Researchers say the ice cap has shrunk in size from about 2.3 square miles in the 1950s to its current coverage of less than one-half of a square mile.
The mountain is located on the border of Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and has a height of 16,763 feet.
Photo: Rob Woodall - Flickr