Question

Why are many peaks in the andes snow cap ped in spite their nearness to the equator

Answer 1

The location of snowline on mountains changes in different regions it depends on conditions such as elevation, latitude, proximity to the sea, climate, wind direction, exposure, and the steepness of the slope.I m from India here snow line occurs at the hight of 4250 meters so here any mountain that reaches or crosses this height will get its peak covered with snow.While in Europe snow line starts at 3500 meters there u will find a mountain’s peak covered with snow if it reaches this height.

Now coming to Mt. Kilimanjaro it is situated in equator region in Tanzania as u know and at the equator the snowline’s location is around at 4500 meters and the height of Mt. Kilimanjaro is 5895 meters clearly crossing the snowline hence it has snow on its peak despite being situated near equator.

Now why is it always covered with snow?? From the other answers u might have understood how climate changes with latitude(it gets colder with hight temperature drops by around 6.5 °C /km) and how air becomes thinner due to lack of gases that makes air. So at the top the mountain is very cold but the air is very thin because the air is very thin it doesnt get heated enough to melt all the snow but the temperature is cold enough to form the snow so the precipitation rate (the rate snow forms by) is greater than the rate that it melts by hence its top is always covered with snow.

Hope it helps.