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Deep in California’s Sierra Nevada, enormous glaciers are vanishing and projected to melt away entirely by the start of the next century, resulting in ice-free peaks for the first time in human history, new research has discovered.

Ancient Beginnings of Sierra Nevada Ice Masses

The range's glaciers are older than earlier understood, tracing back many thousands of years, with some as ancient as the most recent glacial period, according to a report released last week.

“Our pieced-together glacial history shows that a coming ice-free Sierra Nevada is unprecedented in the history of humankind since known settlement of the Americas around twenty thousand years ago,” the article declares.

Worldwide Risk to Ice Formations

Glaciers around the world are under threat amid the climate emergency. A research released in the month of May of the current year found that nearly 40% of glaciers are destined to thaw because of climate warming. If this warming rises by 2.7C, which the planet is currently on track for, as many as 75% will vanish, leading to ocean level increase and large-scale relocation.

Throughout the Western United States, glaciers have shrunk substantially since they were initially recorded in the late 19th century, according to the report.

Concentration on Key Ice Bodies

The recent study focuses on several Sierra Nevada glaciers – the Conness, Maclure, Lyell and Palisade glaciers – that are some of the largest and likely oldest in the mountain chain. Their durability amid global heating makes them “bellwethers” for examining ice loss in the western region, the article states.

Research Methods and Results

Researchers examined recently exposed bedrock around the glaciers and collected specimens to determine how extensively the region was blanketed by glacial ice. They determined that the ice masses have covered large areas of the mountain system for far longer than earlier believed – since before humans inhabited North America.

California’s glaciers attained their maximum positions as long ago as 30,000 years ago, the article’s authors stated, and one of the glaciers experts studied is believed to have expanded seven thousand years ago, earlier than once thought. The loss of glaciers, for the initial time in recorded history, demonstrates the profound effects of the climate crisis, one author of the investigation said.

Environmental and Symbolic Consequences

“We’ll be the first to see the glacier-less summits,” said Andrew Jones, the study’s lead author. “This has ecological ramifications for plants and animals. And it’s a representational decline. Global warming is highly intangible, but these ice masses are tangible. They’re iconic features of the Western U.S..”