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Deep in California’s Sierra mountain range, massive glaciers are vanishing and expected to dissolve completely by the start of the coming hundred years, leaving ice-free peaks for the first time in recorded human existence, recent studies has found.

Ancient Origins of Sierra Range Glaciers

The range's glaciers are older than earlier understood, tracing back many thousands of years, with a few as ancient as the last ice age, according to an article published last week.

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

Worldwide Risk to Ice Formations

Ice masses globally are at risk amid the climate crisis. A study published in the month of May of the current year determined that nearly 40% of glaciers are destined to melt because of climate warming. If such heating increases by 2.7C, which the world is presently on track for, as many as 75% will disappear, leading to ocean level increase and mass displacement.

Across the American west, ice formations have diminished substantially since they were initially recorded in the 1800s, according to the report.

Focus on Major Glaciers

The new research centers on several Sierra Nevada glacial masses – the Conness, Maclure, Lyell and Palisade glaciers – that are among the largest and probably most ancient in the mountain chain. Their durability during climate warming makes them “bellwethers” for examining glacier disappearance in the western region, the article states.

Study Techniques and Results

Scientists examined newly uncovered base rock around the glaciers and collected specimens to determine how long the area was covered by glacial ice. They found that the glaciers have covered large areas of the mountain system for far longer than previously known – since prior to people inhabited North America.

The state's glacial sheets reached their peak extents as early as thirty thousand years ago, the article’s authors wrote, and a particular of the glaciers experts looked at is thought to have grown seven thousand years ago, sooner than previously believed. The loss of glaciers, for the initial time in human history, demonstrates the dramatic impacts of the climate crisis, a researcher of the investigation said.

Ecological and Representational Consequences

“We’ll be the initial ones to see the ice-free peaks,” said Andrew Jones, the principal investigator. “This has ecological ramifications for plants and animals. And it’s a symbolic loss. Global warming is highly intangible, but these ice masses are tangible. They’re iconic features of the Western U.S..”