Monday, August 3, 2026
Science

Fire that scorched African mountain range was unprecedented in the last 12,000 years, research shows

In 2012, a wildfire ripped through 42 square kilometers of alpine moorland in Africa's Rwenzori Mountains, a range of glaciated peaks on the border of Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The blaze, which occurred at an elevation of over 13,000 feet, was shocking to those familiar with the m...

Fire that scorched African mountain range was unprecedented in the last 12,000 years, research shows
Image: Phys.org
In 2012, a wildfire ripped through 42 square kilometers of alpine moorland in Africa's Rwenzori Mountains, a range of glaciated peaks on the border of Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The blaze, which occurred at an elevation of over 13,000 feet, was shocking to those familiar with the mountains, as the climate had been assumed to be too cold and too wet for fire to spread.

Originally published at Phys.org

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