Rwenzori Mountains
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| Rwenzori Mountains | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Highest point | |
| Peak | Mount Stanley |
| Elevation | 5,109 m (16,762 ft) |
| Coordinates | 00°23′09″N 29°52′18″ECoordinates: 00°23′09″N 29°52′18″E |
| Dimensions | |
| Length | 120 km (75 mi) |
| Geography | |
 
Rwenzori Mountains
| |
| Country | Uganda, Democratic Republic of the Congo |
The Rwenzori Mountains, previously called the Ruwenzori Range (spelling changed around 1980 to conform more closely with the local name "Rwenjura"), and sometimes the Mountains of the Moon, is a mountain range of eastern equatorial Africa, located on the border between Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The Rwenzori mountains support glaciers and are one source of the river Nile.
The Rwenzori Mountains reach heights up to 5,109 metres (16,762 ft). The highest Rwenzori peaks are permanently snow-capped, and along with Mount Kilimanjaro and Mount Kenya are the only such ones in equatorial Africa.[citation needed]Rwenzori Mountains National Park and Virunga National Park are located in the range.
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[hide]Geology[edit]
The mountains formed about three million years ago in the late Pliocene epoch and are the result of an uplifted block of crystalline rocks including gneiss, amphibolite granite, and quartzite.[1] They are on the flanks of the Albertine Rift, the western branch of the East African Rift.
This uplift divided the paleolake Obweruka and created three of the present-day African Great Lakes: Lake Albert, Lake Edward,[1] and Lake George.[2]
The range is about 120 kilometres (75 mi) long and 65 kilometres (40 mi) wide. It consists of six massifs separated by deep gorges: Mount Stanley (5,109 metres (16,762 ft)), Mount Speke (4,890 metres (16,040 ft)), Mount Baker (4,843 metres (15,889 ft)), Mount Emin (4,798 metres (15,741 ft)), Mount Gessi (4,715 metres (15,469 ft)), and Mount Luigi di Savoia (4,627 metres (15,180 ft)).[3] Mount Stanley has several subsidiary summits, with Margherita Peak being the highest point. The rock is metamorphic, and the mountains are believed to have been tilted and squeezed upwards by plate movement. They are in an extremely humid area, and frequently enveloped in clouds.
Human history[edit]
In 150 CE the Alexandrian Greek geographer Ptolemy referred to a snowcapped massif in the heart of Africa by the name of Selenes oros, Latinized as "Lunae Montes", in English Mountains of the Moon. These are now widely accepted to be the Rwenzori Mountains.
The first modern European sighting of the Rwenzori was by the expedition of Henry Morton Stanley in 1889 (the clouds possibly being the reason previous explorers over two decades had not seen them). On June 7, the expedition's second-in-command and its military commander, William Grant Stairs, climbed to 3,254 metres (10,676 ft), the first known non-African ever to climb in the range. John Edmund Sharrock Moore reached the snowline in 1900, attaining 14,900 feet and proved the existence of permanent glaciers. The first ascent to the summit was made by the Duke of the Abruzzi in 1906. His expedition quickly made first ascents of all major snow and ice peaks, mapping their complex geography, and leaving them with Italian names. His team consisted of mountain guides, biologists, surveyors, a geologist, photographers, and some one hundred and fifty porters. Photographer Vittorio Sella took a number of photographs showing a now-vanished world. Sella's photographic work is conserved at the Museo Nazionale della Montagna, in Turin, and at the Istituto di Fotografia Alpina Vittorio Sella, in Biella, both in Italy. The Makerere University, Uganda, also has a selection of his images.[4]
The Rwenzori range is the home of the Konjo and Amba peoples. In the early 1900s, these two tribes were added to the Toro Kingdomby the colonial powers. The Konjo and Amba began to agitate for separation from Toro in the 1950s, a movement that became Rwenzururu, an armed secessionist movement, by the mid-1960s. The insurgency ended through a negotiated settlement in 1982, though the Rwenzururu Kingdom was acknowledged by the government in 2008.
Natural history[edit]
Flora[edit]
The Rwenzori are known for their vegetation, ranging from tropical rainforest through alpine meadows to snow. The range supports its own species and varieties of giant groundsel and giant lobelia and even has a six metre high heather covered in moss that lives on one of its peaks. Most of the range is now a World Heritage Site and is covered jointly by the Rwenzori Mountains National Park in southwestern Uganda, and the Virunga National Park in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo.[3]
Although the flora in the Rwenzori is closely related to that of other East-African high mountains it is much more luxuriant here. This is mainly a result of the high and regular rainfall in the area. The distribution of vegetation is for a good deal determined by the altitude. At higher elevations, certain genera of plants grow unusually large. Most surprising are the giant heathers, senecios and lobelias, which the Swedish botanist Olov Hedberg from the Uppsala University referred to as “botanical big game”. As the altitude increases, temperatures drop. The air also grows thinner, provoking intense radiation, even on clouded days. During the day the incoming radiation of ultraviolet and infrared light is fierce, while at night the outward radiation under a clear sky has a considerable cooling effect. The equatorial location dictates marked diurnal variations in temperature, whereas the seasonal differences are less important, as if it were summer every day, winter every night.
There is no water shortage in the Rwenzori. Yet several members of the afroalpine family bear resemblance with species that normally thrive in desert climates. The reason lies in their similar water economy. Although abundantly present, water is not always readily available to the afroalpine plants when they need it. The nightly frosts affect the sap transport in the plants, and the intake of water by its roots. As the day begins, the air temperature and radiation level rise rapidly, putting strenuous demands on the exposed parts of the plants. It is vital to meet the transpiration demands of the leaves, and maintain a proper water balance. To counter the effects of freezing, the afroalpine plants have developed the insulation systems which give them such a striking appearance. As a rule, these adaptive trends become more prominent as the altitude rises.[4]
- Vegetation zones
- There are 5 different vegetation zones found in the Rwenzori Mountains. These are grassland (1000–2000 m), montane forest (2000–3000 m), bamboo/mimulopsis zone (2500–3500 m), heather/Rapanea zone (3000–4000 m) and the afro-alpine moorland zone (4000–4500 m). At higher altitudes some plants reach an unusually large size, such as lobelia and groundsels. The vegetation in the Rwenzori Mountains is unique to equatorial alpine Africa.[5]
Fauna[edit]
The range is known for its animal populations, including forest elephants, several primate species, and many endemic birds.
Glacial recession in Rwenzori[edit]
Main article: Retreat of glaciers since 1850 § Tropical glaciers
A subject of concern in recent years has been the impact of climate change on Rwenzori's glaciers. In 1906 the Rwenzori had 43 named glaciers distributed over six mountains with a total area of 7.5 square kilometres (2.9 sq mi), about half the total glacier area in Africa. By 2005 less than half of these were still present, on only three mountains, with an area of about 1.5 square kilometres (0.58 sq mi). Recent scientific studies, such as those by Dr. Richard Taylor of University College London, have attributed this retreat to global climate change and have investigated the impact of this change on the mountain's vegetation and biodiversity.[8][9]
See also[edit]
Notes[edit]
- ^ a b "Climate Change and the Aquatic Ecosystems of the Rwenzori Mountains". Makerere University and University College London. 15 September 2007. Retrieved 2 February 2014.
- ^ Wayland, E. J. (July–December 1934). "Rifts, Rivers, Rains and Early Man in Uganda". Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute. Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland. 64: 333–352. doi:10.2307/2843813. JSTOR 2843813.
- ^ a b "Rwenzori Mountains National Park". Rwenzori Abruzzi. 27 May 2006. Archived from the original on 2008-03-05. Retrieved 2008-05-06.
- ^ a b Flowers of the Moon, Afroalpine vegetation of the Rwenzori Mountains, Schutyser S., 2007, 5 Continents Editions, ISBN 978-88-7439-423-4.
- ^ a b H. Peter Linder and Berit Gehrke (2 March 2006). "Common plants of the Rwenzori, particularly the upper zones" (PDF). Institute for Systematic Botany, University of Zurich. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2008-05-30. Retrieved 2008-05-06.
- ^ "RWENZORI MOUNTAINS NATIONAL PARK, UGANDA". Protected Areas and World Heritage. United Nations Environment Programme. March 1994. Archived from the original on 2008-03-25. Retrieved 2008-05-08.
- ^ "Forest Resources of Tropical Africa". Tropical Forest Resources Assessment Project (reprint ed.). Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. 1984. UN 32/6.1301–78–04. Retrieved 2008-05-12.
- ^ Tom Knudson, [In the Mountains of the Moon, A Trek to Africa’s Last Glaciers], Yale Environment 360 Report, 4 Feb 2010
- ^ [Rwenzori Glaciers (East Africa)], Tropical Glaciology Group, Innsbruck University
References[edit]
- Glaciers of the Middle East and Africa, Williams, Richard S., Jr. (editor) In: U. S. Geological Survey Professional Paper, 1991, pp.G1-G70
- Guide to the Ruwenzori, Osmaston,H.A., Pasteur,D. 1972, Mountain Club of Uganda. 200 p.
- Recession of Equatorial Glaciers. A Photo Documentation, Hastenrath, S., 2008, Sundog Publishing, Madison, WI, ISBN 978-0-9729033-3-2, 144 pp.
- Tropical Glaciers, Kaser, G., Osmaston, H.A. 2002, Cambridge University Press, UK. 207 p.
- Ruwenzori, de Filippi, F. 1909. Constable, London. 408 p.
- Greenpeace article "The Death of the Ice Gigantaurs"
- BBC Article "Fabled ice field set to vanish"
- Dr Taylor's Homepage, with information about the impact of climate change on Rwenzori.
- Kaser et al. 2006, in International Book of Climatology 24: 329–339 (2004)
External links[edit]
 | Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ruwenzori Range. |
 | Wikisource has the text of the 1920 Encyclopedia Americana article Ruwenzori. |
- World Wildlife Fund (2001). "Ruwenzoris". WildWorld Ecoregion Profile. National Geographic Society. Archived from the original on 2010-03-08.
- UWM.edu: 1937 aerial photographs of Rwenzori Mountains — University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Libraries Digital Collections.
Beach, Chandler B., ed. (1914). "Ruwenzori". The New Student's Reference Work. Chicago: F. E. Compton and Co.
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