Evidence for a Considerable Depression of the Vegetation Belts during the Upper Pleistocene on the East African Mountains

Abstract

PRELIMINARY analyses were made of a core from the sediments of Sacred Lake, which lies in the montane rain forest zone at an altitude of 2,440 m at 37° 32′ E. and 0° 03′ N. on the north-east flank of Mount Kenya. A carbon-14 age determination of 15,400 ± 180 B.P. (GrN–3614) was obtained from the− 12.30 m level. To base this date on the half-life 5,730 ± 40 years, it was multiplied by 1.03, thus converting it to 15,862 ± 185 B.P. (All other dates mentioned have likewise been converted.) On the assumption of a constant sedimentation rate, the age of total core is calculated to be 18,626 B.P. The European chronostratigraphy was used for calibration with the pollen stratigraphy of the core.