Mount Kenya used to be covered in an ice cap, which eroded the mountain to expose the volcanic plugs which form the current summit. This would have been caused by a cooler climate and the fact that the mountain reached an altitude of between - resulting in colder temperatures. Since then the mountain has undergone a number of glaciations, but only the more recent one can be chronologically complete due to each new glaciation eroding the moraines of the previous ones, if the glaciers advance over them.