The Quelccaya Ice Cap (also known as Quenamari Ice Cap) is the second largest glaciated area in the tropics, after Coropuna. Located in the Cordillera Oriental section of the Andes mountains in Peru, the cap covers an area of 42.8 square kilometres (16.5 sq mi) with ice up to 200 metres (660 ft) thick. It is surrounded by tall ice cliffs and a number of outlet glaciers, the largest of which is known as Qori Kalis Glacier; lakes, moraines, peat bogs and wetlands are also present. There is a rich flora and fauna, including birds that nest on the ice cap. Quelccaya is an important source of water, eventually melting and flowing into the Inambari and Vilcanota Rivers.
A number of ice cores have been obtained from Quelccaya, including two from 1983 that were the first recovered outside of the polar regions. Past climate states have been reconstructed from data in these ice cores; these include evidence of the Little Ice Age, regional droughts and wet periods with historical significance and past and recent El Niño events. The ice cap is regularly monitored and has a weather station.
Quelccaya was much larger in the past, merging with neighbouring glaciers during the Pleistocene epoch. A secondary expansion occurred during either the Antarctic Cold Reversal or the Younger Dryas climate anomalies. At the beginning of the Holocene the ice cap shrank to a size smaller than present day; around 5,000 years ago, a neoglacial expansion began. A number of moraines – especially in the Huancané valley – testify to past expansions and changes of Quelccaya, although the chronology of individual moraines is often unclear.
After reaching a secondary highstand (area expansion) during the Little Ice Age, Quelccaya has been shrinking due to human-caused climate change; in particular the Qori Kalis Glacier has been retreating significantly. Life and lakes have been occupying the terrain left by retreating ice; these lakes can be dangerous as they can cause floods when they breach. Climate models predict that without climate change mitigation measures, Quelccaya is likely to disappear during the 21st or 22nd century.
levels were 3 to 5 metres higher than today. Plants buried in the QuelccayaIceCap in the Peruvian Andes demonstrate the climate had shifted suddenly...
October A study by the University at Albany forecasts that Peru's Quelccayaicecap will reach a state of irreversible retreat by the mid-2050s, if current...
tropical glaciers left in the world, and is the main outlet of the QuelccayaIceCap. This glacier has lost nearly half of its length since measurements...
glacier. A large body of glacial ice astride a mountain, mountain range, or volcano is termed an icecap or ice field. Icecaps have an area less than 50,000 km2...
the past several hundred years. The Upper Fremont Glacier and the QuelccayaIceCap in the Andes of South America both show nearly identical atmospheric...
index of 5; fallout deposits reached the QuelccayaIceCap and influenced the chemistry of lakes close to the icecap. Activity during the late Pleistocene...
1,300 km2 (500 sq mi). The QuelccayaIceCap is the second largest tropical icecap in the world after the Coropuna icecap, and all of the outlet glaciers...
been collected from ongoing research at Nevado del Ruiz in Colombia, QuelccayaIceCap and Qori Kalis Glacier in Peru, Zongo, Chacaltaya and Charquini glaciers...
largest icecap of the tropics. As of 2014 it was 8.5 km (5.3 mi) wide and eleven km (6.8 mi) long. It is larger than the QuelccayaIceCap 250 km (160 mi)...
area, hosting the two largest tropical glaciers: the QuelccayaIceCap and the Nevado Coropuna icecap. Monitoring the shrinkage of these glaciers is important...
established with a similar ice core study which had been undertaken on the QuelccayaIceCap in Peru, which also demonstrated the same changes in the oxygen isotope...
as lead and cadmium, making it unsafe to consume, For example, the QuelccayaIceCap is the second largest in the Peruvian Andes and has shrunk by 30%...
history broke away from the Ross Ice Shelf. The Qori Kalis Glacier in Peru, the main outlet of the QuelccayaIceCap, is in retreat. The terminus of the...
come as a surprise to find just how much of it is blanketed in snow and ice. These vast frozen wildernesses cover more than a fifth of the Earth, yet...
Ash layers about 8–12 cm (3.1–4.7 in) thick were noted in the icecaps of Quelccaya in Peru and Sajama in Bolivia, although the deposits in Sajama may...
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