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Deep in the state of Sierra Nevada, enormous glaciers are disappearing and expected to melt away completely by the start of the next century, resulting in summits without glaciers for the initial occasion in recorded human existence, new research has discovered.

Age-Old Origins of Sierra Nevada Ice Masses

The mountain range’s ice sheets are older than previously known, tracing back tens of thousands of years, with a few as old as the most recent glacial period, according to an article published recently.

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

Global Risk to Ice Formations

Ice masses around the world are under threat during the climate crisis. A research released in May of this year determined that almost forty percent of ice sheets are destined to melt because of global heating. If such heating rises by 2.7 degrees Celsius, which the world is presently on course for, as many as 75% will vanish, causing sea level rise and mass displacement.

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

Focus on Key Ice Bodies

The new research centers on several Sierra Nevada glaciers – the Conness, Maclure, Lyell and Palisade glaciers – that are among the largest and likely most ancient in the range. Their durability during global heating makes them “indicators” for examining glacier disappearance in the western region, the article states.

Study Techniques and Findings

Researchers examined recently exposed base rock around the ice formations and took samples to determine how extensively the area was blanketed by glacial ice. They found that the glaciers have covered swaths of the range for much longer than earlier believed – since prior to humans inhabited North America.

California’s glacial sheets reached their maximum positions as long ago as thirty thousand years ago, the article’s authors stated, and one of the glaciers experts looked at is believed to have expanded seven thousand years ago, sooner than once thought. The loss of glaciers, for the first time in recorded history, demonstrates the profound impacts of the climate change, a researcher of the study said.

Environmental and Symbolic Impact

“We’ll be the initial ones to witness the ice-free peaks,” said the study's lead researcher, the study’s lead author. “This has ecological ramifications for plants and animals. And it’s a representational decline. Climate change is highly intangible, but these glaciers are tangible. They’re symbolic elements of the American West.”