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Far in California’s Sierra mountain range, massive glaciers are vanishing and expected to dissolve entirely by the beginning of the next century, resulting in summits without glaciers for the first time in recorded human existence, new research has discovered.

Ancient Beginnings of Sierra Range Ice Masses

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

“Our reconstructed glacial history shows that a coming glacier-free Sierra Nevada is without precedent in the history of humankind since known settlement of the Americas ~20,000 years ago,” the study states.

Global Risk to Ice Formations

Ice masses globally are under threat amid the climate crisis. A research released in May of this year determined that nearly 40% of glaciers are doomed to melt because of climate warming. If this warming increases by 2.7C, which the world is currently on course for, as up to 75% will disappear, causing ocean level increase and mass displacement.

Throughout the Western United States, glaciers have diminished substantially since they were initially recorded in the 1800s, according to the article.

Focus on Key Ice Bodies

The new research focuses on several Sierra Nevada glaciers – the Palisade, Lyell, Maclure and Conness ice sheets – that are among the largest and probably most ancient in the range. Their durability amid global heating makes them “bellwethers” for examining glacier disappearance in the west, the study states.

Study Techniques and Results

Scientists examined newly uncovered base rock around the ice formations and collected specimens to determine how extensively the region was blanketed by ice. They found that the glaciers have covered large areas of the range for far longer than previously known – since before people occupied North America.

The state's glacial sheets reached their maximum positions as early as 30,000 years ago, the study's researchers stated, and a particular of the glaciers researchers looked at is thought to have expanded 7,000 years ago, sooner than once thought. The disappearance of glaciers, for the initial time in recorded history, shows the profound impacts of the climate crisis, one author of the study said.

Environmental and Representational Consequences

“We’ll be the initial ones to witness the glacier-less summits,” said Andrew Jones, the principal investigator. “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.”