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Deep in California’s Sierra Nevada, enormous ice formations are disappearing and projected to dissolve entirely by the start of the coming hundred years, resulting in ice-free peaks for the first time in recorded human existence, new research has found.

Ancient Beginnings of Sierra Nevada Ice Masses

The mountain range’s ice sheets are older than previously known, dating back many thousands of years, with a few as old as the most recent glacial period, according to an article released last week.

“Our pieced-together ice age record shows that a future glacier-free Sierra Nevada is unprecedented in the history of humankind since documented settlement of the Americas around twenty thousand years ago,” the study states.

Worldwide Threat to Glaciers

Ice masses around the world are under threat during the climate crisis. A study published in the month of May of this year found that almost forty percent of glaciers are destined to thaw because of climate warming. If this warming rises by 2.7C, which the planet is presently on course for, as many as seventy-five percent will vanish, leading to sea level rise and mass displacement.

Across the American west, glaciers have shrunk substantially since they were initially recorded in the 1800s, according to the report.

Concentration on Major Glaciers

The recent study centers on four Sierra Nevada glacial masses – the Palisade, Lyell, Maclure and Conness glaciers – that are among the biggest and likely most ancient in the range. Their durability during global heating makes them “indicators” for examining glacier disappearance in the west, the article states.

Study Techniques and Results

Scientists looked at newly uncovered base rock around the glaciers and took samples to determine how extensively the region was blanketed by ice. They found that the glaciers have enveloped swaths of the range for much longer than previously known – since before humans occupied North America.

California’s glacial sheets reached their peak extents as long ago as 30,000 years ago, the article’s authors stated, and one of the glaciers experts studied is thought to have grown seven thousand years ago, earlier than previously believed. The disappearance of glaciers, for the first time in recorded history, shows the profound effects of the climate change, one author of the investigation said.

Ecological and Representational Impact

“We’ll be the initial ones to witness the glacier-less summits,” said Andrew Jones, the study’s lead author. “This has environmental ramifications for flora and fauna. And it’s a representational decline. Global warming is very abstract, but these glaciers are tangible. They’re symbolic elements of the American West.”