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Far in California’s Sierra Nevada, enormous ice formations are vanishing and expected to dissolve completely by the start of the coming hundred years, leaving ice-free peaks for the initial occasion in recorded human existence, recent studies has discovered.

Ancient Origins of Sierra Range Glaciers

The range's ice sheets are more ancient than previously known, tracing back tens of thousands of years, with a few as old as the last ice age, according to a report released recently.

“Our pieced-together ice age record 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 states.

Worldwide Threat to Ice Formations

Glaciers globally are at risk amid the climate emergency. A study published in the month of May of the current year determined that almost forty percent of ice sheets are destined to melt because of global heating. If such heating rises by 2.7C, which the planet is currently on course for, as up to seventy-five percent will disappear, causing ocean level increase and large-scale relocation.

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

Focus on Key Glaciers

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

Research Methods and Findings

Researchers looked at recently exposed bedrock around the ice formations and took samples to determine how long the region was blanketed by glacial ice. They found that the glaciers have covered swaths of the range for far longer than previously known – since prior to people occupied North America.

California’s glacial sheets attained their maximum positions as early as thirty thousand years ago, the article’s authors wrote, and one of the ice bodies experts studied is thought to have grown seven thousand years ago, sooner than previously believed. The loss of glaciers, for the initial time in human history, shows the dramatic effects of the climate crisis, a researcher of the investigation said.

Environmental and Representational Impact

“We’ll be the first to witness the glacier-less summits,” said the study's lead researcher, the principal investigator. “This has environmental ramifications for plants and animals. And it’s a symbolic loss. Global warming is very abstract, but these ice masses are concrete. They’re iconic features of the Western U.S..”