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Far in California’s Sierra Nevada, enormous ice formations are vanishing and projected to melt away entirely by the start of the next century, leaving summits without glaciers for the first time in recorded human existence, new research has found.

Ancient Beginnings of Sierra Range Glaciers

The range's ice sheets are older than earlier understood, tracing back many thousands of years, with some as old as the most recent glacial period, according to an article released last week.

“Our pieced-together ice age record indicates that a future glacier-free Sierra Nevada is unprecedented in human history since known peopling of the Americas ~20,000 years ago,” the article states.

Global Risk to Glaciers

Glaciers around the world are at risk amid the climate emergency. A research released in the month of May of the current year determined that almost forty percent of glaciers are destined to thaw because of climate warming. If such heating increases by 2.7C, which the world is currently on course for, as many as seventy-five percent will disappear, causing sea level rise and mass displacement.

Throughout the Western United States, glaciers have diminished significantly since they were initially recorded in the late 19th century, according to the article.

Focus on Major Ice Bodies

The new research focuses on several Sierra Nevada glaciers – the Conness, Maclure, Lyell and Palisade glaciers – that are some of the largest and likely oldest in the range. Their longevity amid climate warming makes them “bellwethers” for examining ice loss in the western region, the study notes.

Study Techniques and Results

Scientists looked at newly uncovered base rock around the glaciers and took samples to ascertain how long the region was covered by ice. They determined that the ice masses have enveloped large areas of the mountain system for far longer than previously known – since before people inhabited North America.

California’s glacial sheets attained their maximum positions as long ago as thirty thousand years ago, the article’s authors stated, and a particular of the glaciers experts looked at is believed to have expanded 7,000 years ago, earlier than previously believed. The loss of ice formations, for the initial time in human history, shows the dramatic effects of the climate crisis, one author of the investigation said.

Environmental and Symbolic Impact

“We’ll be the initial ones to see the ice-free peaks,” said Andrew Jones, the study’s lead author. “This has environmental implications for flora and fauna. And it’s a representational decline. Global warming is very abstract, but these glaciers are tangible. They’re iconic features of the American West.”