Snows of Kilimanjaro to be 'gone in 14 years'

The white ice on top of Africa's Mount Kilimanjaro may have completely disappeared in 14 years, according to an American scientist.

A survey completed last year found 82% of the ice field that existed on Kilimanjaro in 1912 has melted, said Lonnie Thompson, an Ohio State University researcher.

He has predicted that the ice will have completely disappeared by 2015.

Mr Thompson, who has studied the worldwide decline of mountain glaciers, reported on his research at the national meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in San Francisco.

Kilimanjaro, Africa's highest mountain, towers 19,340 feet above a tropical forest in Tanzania, near the equator.

More than 20,000 tourists climb the mountain slopes each year to experience the novelty of an equatorial ice field.

Thompson said he mapped the Kilimanjaro ice cap last year and compared the results with a survey conducted in 1912.

In 1912, the mountain had 4.6 square miles of ice but less than a square mile of ice remains, said Thompson. Some rivers and streams in Tanzania fed by the mountain's snow melt have already dried up.