Preserve the ice memory for future generations

Mission status

Planned drilling campaign – not completed

In 2022, Ice Memory identified the glaciers of Kilimanjaro as a priority site within its global roadmap. However, the planned drilling mission could not be carried out due to diplomatic and administrative constraints.
To date, the operation has not been rescheduled.

Why Kilimanjaro?

Kilimanjaro hosts the only remaining glaciers on the African continent still capable of providing ice suitable for high-quality paleoclimatic and environmental studies.

These glaciers are scientifically invaluable because they:

• Preserve unique tropical climate records
• Document atmospheric and environmental changes in East Africa
• Help reconstruct past climatic events to better anticipate future impacts

Yet their survival is critically threatened.
Since the first systematic observations in 1912, approximately 85% of Kilimanjaro’s ice cover has disappeared (Cullen et al., 2013).
Current projections suggest that the remaining ice could disappear entirely by 2040.

Replay the BBC interview of Doug Hardy on UNESCO’s report on glaciers, with a focus on Kilimanjaro.

Scientific and climate significance

The glaciers of Kilimanjaro represent a rare equatorial archive — offering insights into:

• Tropical climate variability
• Atmospheric circulation patterns
• Long-range transport of aerosols and dust
• Regional hydrological shifts

Their disappearance would mark the loss of a unique African climate memory.
For this reason, Kilimanjaro was listed as a priority site on the Ice Memory drilling roadmap.

A race against time

Although the 2022 expedition could not proceed, the urgency remains.
The expected disappearance of the glacier within the coming decades underscores the importance of securing such archives before they vanish.