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Deep in California’s Sierra mountain range, enormous ice formations are disappearing and expected to melt away 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 discovered.

Ancient Beginnings of Sierra Nevada Glaciers

The range's ice sheets are older than previously known, dating back tens of thousands of years, with some as ancient as the last ice age, according to a report published last week.

“Our pieced-together glacial history indicates that a coming glacier-free Sierra Nevada is unprecedented in human history since known peopling of the Americas around twenty thousand years ago,” the article states.

Worldwide Risk to Ice Formations

Glaciers globally are at risk during the climate crisis. A study released in the month of May of this year found that almost forty percent of glaciers are destined to thaw because of climate warming. If such heating rises by 2.7 degrees Celsius, which the world is presently on track for, as up to seventy-five percent will vanish, leading to ocean level increase and mass displacement.

Throughout the American west, glaciers have shrunk substantially since they were first documented in the late 19th century, according to the report.

Focus on Key Glaciers

The new research focuses on four Sierra Nevada glaciers – the Conness, Maclure, Lyell and Palisade glaciers – that are some of the biggest and probably oldest in the range. Their longevity during climate warming makes them “bellwethers” for studying ice loss in the west, the study notes.

Study Techniques and Findings

Researchers examined recently exposed base rock around the ice formations and collected specimens to ascertain how extensively the region was covered by ice. They determined that the ice masses have covered large areas of the range for much longer than previously known – since before humans occupied North America.

The state's glacial sheets attained their peak extents as long ago as thirty thousand years ago, the article’s authors wrote, and a particular of the ice bodies experts looked at is believed to have grown 7,000 years ago, earlier than previously believed. The loss of glaciers, for the first time in recorded history, shows the dramatic effects of the climate crisis, one author of the study said.

Ecological and Representational Consequences

“We’ll be the initial ones to witness the ice-free peaks,” said Andrew Jones, the study’s lead author. “This has environmental implications for plants and animals. And it’s a symbolic loss. Global warming is very abstract, but these glaciers are concrete. They’re symbolic elements of the American West.”