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Deep in California’s Sierra mountain range, massive glaciers are vanishing and projected to dissolve entirely by the beginning of the coming hundred years, resulting in summits without glaciers for the initial occasion in recorded human existence, new research has found.

Age-Old Beginnings of Sierra Nevada Glaciers

The range's ice sheets are older than previously known, dating back many thousands of years, with a few as ancient as the most recent glacial period, according to a report released recently.

“Our reconstructed glacial history shows that a coming ice-free Sierra Nevada is unprecedented in human history since documented peopling of the Americas around twenty thousand years ago,” the study declares.

Worldwide Risk to Ice Formations

Ice masses around the world are under threat amid the climate crisis. A research published in the month of May of this year found that almost forty percent of ice sheets are destined to thaw because of climate warming. If this warming increases by 2.7 degrees Celsius, which the world is currently on course for, as up to 75% will vanish, leading to sea level rise and mass displacement.

Across the American west, glaciers have shrunk substantially since they were first documented in the 1800s, according to the article.

Focus on Major Ice Bodies

The recent study focuses on four Sierra Nevada glaciers – the Palisade, Lyell, Maclure and Conness ice sheets – that are among the biggest and probably most ancient in the mountain chain. Their longevity amid global heating makes them “indicators” for studying glacier disappearance in the west, the study states.

Research Methods and Findings

Researchers examined recently exposed base rock around the ice formations and collected specimens to determine how long the region was covered by glacial ice. They determined that the ice masses have covered swaths of the mountain system for much longer than earlier believed – since prior to humans occupied North America.

The state's glacial sheets reached their peak extents as long ago as thirty thousand years ago, the article’s authors wrote, and one of the glaciers experts studied is believed to have expanded seven thousand years ago, sooner than previously believed. The loss of glaciers, for the initial time in human history, demonstrates the profound effects of the climate change, one author of the study said.

Ecological and Symbolic Consequences

“We’ll be the initial ones to witness the ice-free peaks,” said the study's lead researcher, the principal investigator. “This has ecological implications for plants and animals. And it’s a symbolic loss. Global warming is very abstract, but these ice masses are tangible. They’re symbolic elements of the American West.”