Mount Kenya
Mount Kenya known by several ancient and indigenous names, Meru: Kĩrĩmaara, Kikuyu: Kĩrĩmanyaga, is the second-highest peak in Africa, after Kilimanjaro. The highest peaks of the mountain are Batian, Nelion and Point Lenana. Mount Kenya is located in the former Eastern and Central provinces of Kenya; its peak is now the intersection of Meru, Embu, Kirinyaga, Nyeri and Tharaka Nithi counties, about south of the equator, around north-northeast of the capital Nairobi.
Mount Kenya is a volcano created approximately 3 million years after the opening of the East African Rift. Before glaciation, it was high. It was covered by an ice cap for thousands of years. This has resulted in very eroded slopes and numerous valleys radiating from the peak. There are currently 11 small glaciers, which are shrinking rapidly, and may disappear by 2050. The forested slopes are an important source of water for much of Kenya.
There are several vegetation bands from the base to the peak. The lower slopes are covered by different types of forest. Many alpine species are endemic to Mount Kenya, such as the giant lobelias and senecios and a local subspecies of rock hyrax. An area of around the centre of the mountain was designated a National Park in 1949 and listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1997. The park receives over 16,000 visitors per year.
Mount Kenya National Park
Mount Kenya National Park, established in 1949, protects the region surrounding the mountain. Currently, the national park is within the forest reserve which encircles it. In April 1978 the area was designated a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. The national park and the forest reserve, combined, became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1997.The Government of Kenya had four reasons for creating a national park on and around Mount Kenya. These were the importance of tourism for the local and national economies, preserving an area of great scenic beauty, conserving the biodiversity within the park, and preserving the water catchment for the surrounding area.
Kenya's government has announced a project to discourage animals from straying into small holdings surrounding the national park and devastating crops, which will see the national park enclosed by an electric fence with five electrified strands. Kenya's Rhino Ark Trust, a non-profit organization, has been putting up fences in key areas around the country. As of 2021, 250 kilometres out of a planned 450 kilometres have been constructed in the Mt. Kenya area. The fence discharges an electric shock, but is not dangerous to humans or animals.
Timeline Breakdown of Mount Kenya Inhabitants
Mount Kenya is a significant cultural landmark for various ethnic communities. The mountain was inhabited by other indigenous peoples long before the arrival of today's major ethnic communities.Geology
Mount Kenya is a stratovolcano that was active in the Plio-Pleistocene. The original crater was probably over high; and potentially up to high, making the prehistoric Mount Kenya higher than present-day Kilimanjaro. Since it became extinct there have been two major periods of glaciation, which are shown by two main rings of moraines below the glaciers. The lowest moraine is found at around. Today the glaciers reach no lower than. After studying the moraines, John Walter Gregory put forward the theory that at one time the whole summit of the mountain was covered with an ice cap, and it was this that eroded the peaks to how they are today.The lower slopes of the mountain have never been glaciated. They are now mainly cultivated and forested. They are distinguished by steep-sided V-shaped valleys with many tributaries. Higher up the mountain, in the area that is now moorland, the valleys become U-shaped and shallower with flatter bottoms. These were created by glaciation.
When Mount Kenya was active there was some satellite activity. The northeastern side of the mountain has many old volcanic plugs and craters. The largest of these, Ithanguni, even had its own ice cap when the main peaks were covered in ice. This can be seen by the smoothed summit of the peak. Circular hills with steep sides are also frequent in this area, which are probably the remains of small plugged vents. However, as the remaining mountain is roughly symmetrical, most of the activity must have occurred at the central plug.
The rocks that form Mount Kenya are mainly basalts, rhomb porphyrites, phonolites, kenytes and trachytes. Kenyte was first reported by Gregory in 1900 following his study of the geology of Mount Kenya.
The geology of the Mount Kenya area was first described scientifically by Joseph Thomson in 1883. He saw the mountain from the nearby Laikipia Plateau and wrote that it was an extinct volcano with the plug exposed. However, as he had only seen the mountain from a distance his description was not widely believed in Europe, particularly after 1887 when Teleki and von Höhnel ascended the mountain and described what they considered to be the crater. In 1893 Gregory's expedition reached the Lewis Glacier at. He confirmed that the volcano was extinct and that there were glaciers present. The first thorough survey by Europeans was not undertaken until 1966.
Peaks
The peaks of Mount Kenya are almost all of volcanic origin. The majority of the peaks are located near the centre of the mountain which have an Alpine appearance due to their craggy nature. Typically of Alpine terrain, the highest peaks and gendarmes occur at the intersection of ridges. The central peaks only have a few mosses, lichens, and small alpine plants growing in rock crevices. Further away from the central peaks, the volcanic plugs are covered in volcanic ash and soils. The vegetation growing on these peaks is typical for their vegetation band.The highest peaks are Batian, Nelion and Pt Lenana. Batian and Nelion are within of each other, separated by the Gate of the Mists gap of.
Other peaks around the central plug include Pt Piggot, Pt Dutton, Pt John, Pt John Minor, Krapf Rognon, Pt Peter, Pt Slade and Midget Peak. All of these have a steep pyramidal form.
Significant craggy outlying peaks include Terere and Sendeyo which form a pair of twin peaks to the north of the main plug. Together, they form a large parasitic plug. Other notable peaks include The Hat, Delamere Peak, Macmillan Peak and Rotundu.
Glaciers
The glaciers on Mount Kenya are retreating rapidly. The Mountain Club of Kenya in Nairobi has photographs showing the mountain at the time of the first recorded ascent in 1899, and again more recently; the retreat of the glaciers is very evident. Descriptions of ascents of several of the peaks advise the use of crampons, but this is true only in some cases and at higher elevations. Every year there is less new snow accumulating in winter than melting in summer, even on the Lewis Glacier in winter, so there is no formation of new ice. It is predicted to be less than 30 years before there will no longer be ice on Mount Kenya. Glacial retreat and disappearance can be caused by changes in temperature trends, or by a change in precipitation trends.The glacier names are :
- Northey, Krapf, Gregory, Lewis, Diamond, Darwin, Forel, Heim, Tyndall, Cesar, Josef.
The total area covered by glaciers on the mountain was recorded as about in the 1980s, far less than that recorded by the first observations, made in the 1890s. A 2024 study showed that only 10% of the surface-area of the 1980s remained; 6,9 ha, about half as much as in 2016.
Periglacial landforms
Although Mount Kenya is on the equator the freezing nightly temperatures result in periglacial landforms. There is permafrost a few centimetres below the surface. Patterned ground is present at to the west of Mugi Hill. These mounds grow because the repeated freezing and thawing of the ground draws in more water. There are blockfields present around where the ground has cracked to form hexagons. Solifluction occurs when the night temperatures freeze the soil before it thaws again in the morning. This daily expansion and contraction of the soil prevent the establishment of vegetation.Rivers
Mount Kenya is the main water catchment area for two large rivers in Kenya; the Tana, the largest river in Kenya, and the Ewaso Nyiro North. The Mount Kenya ecosystem provides water directly for over 2 million people. The rivers on Mount Kenya have been named after the villages on the slopes of the mountain that they flow close to. The Thuchi River is the district boundary between Tharaka Nithi and Embu. Mount Kenya is a major water tower for the Tana river which in 1988 supplied 80% of Kenya's electricity using a series of seven hydroelectric power stations and dams.The density of streams is very high, especially on the lower slopes which have never been glaciated. The ice cap which used to cover the mountain during the Pliocene eroded large U-shaped valleys which tend to only have one large stream.
Where the original shape of the shield volcano is still preserved, there have been millions of years for streams to erode the hillside. This area is therefore characterised by frequent deep fluvial V-shaped valleys.
The gradual transition from glaciated to the fluvial valley can be clearly observed.
Rivers that start on Mount Kenya are the tributaries of two large Kenyan rivers: the Tana and the Ewaso Ng'iro rivers. A lot of Mount Kenyan rivers flow into the Sagana which itself is a tributary of the Tana, which joins at the Masinga Reservoir. The rivers in the northern part of the mountain, such as the Burguret, Naru Moru, Nanyuki, Likii, and Sirimon flow into the Ewaso Nyiro. The rivers to the southwest, such as the Keringa and Nairobi flow into the Sagana and then into the Tana. The remaining rivers to the south and east, such as the Kathitâ, Mutonga, Nithi, Thuchi, and Nyamindi, flow directly into the Tana.