Fig. 2 Hypsography of the eight African mountains that were most extensively glaciated during the Late Pleistocene.
Top row (excluding High Atlas) shows the hypsography of the three highest mountains in the Ethiopian Highlands and bottom row shows the hypsography of four East African mountains. Note that the total surface area of the Bale Mountains above 3000 m is more than twice as large as that of most of the other peaks.
The varying hypsography of the mountains has implications for present and past glaciations on the continent. Under present climatic conditions, the ELA is located far above the maximum elevation of most of the African mountains. Glaciers can therefore only persist in the summit areas of the three highest peaks of the East African Mountains. However, once the ELA decreases below 4000 to 4500 m as during the last glaciation (