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Deep in California’s Sierra Nevada, massive glaciers are disappearing and projected to melt away entirely by the beginning of the coming hundred years, leaving summits without glaciers for the first time in human history, new research has discovered.

Age-Old Origins of Sierra Nevada Ice Masses

The mountain range’s glaciers are more ancient than earlier understood, dating back many thousands of years, with some as old as the last ice age, according to an article published recently.

“Our reconstructed glacial history shows that a coming glacier-free Sierra Nevada is unprecedented in human history since known settlement of the Americas ~20,000 years ago,” the study states.

Worldwide Threat to Ice Formations

Glaciers around the world are under threat during the climate crisis. A research published in May of the current year determined that almost forty percent of glaciers are doomed to thaw because of global heating. If this warming increases by 2.7C, which the planet is currently on course for, as many as seventy-five percent will vanish, leading to ocean level increase and large-scale relocation.

Throughout the American west, ice formations have shrunk substantially since they were first documented in the 1800s, according to the report.

Focus on Key Glaciers

The new research centers on several Sierra Nevada glacial masses – the Palisade, Lyell, Maclure and Conness ice sheets – that are some of the biggest and likely most ancient in the mountain chain. Their longevity amid global heating makes them “indicators” for studying glacier disappearance in the western region, the article states.

Research Methods and Results

Scientists looked at newly uncovered base rock around the ice formations and collected specimens to ascertain how long the region was covered by ice. They found that the ice masses have covered large areas of the range for much longer than earlier believed – since before humans inhabited North America.

The state's glacial sheets attained their peak extents as early as 30,000 years ago, the study's researchers stated, and a particular of the glaciers experts looked at is thought to have expanded 7,000 years ago, earlier than once thought. The disappearance of ice formations, for the initial time in human history, demonstrates the profound effects of the climate change, one author of the investigation said.

Ecological and Representational Impact

“We’ll be the first to see the ice-free peaks,” said the study's lead researcher, the study’s lead author. “This has ecological ramifications for flora and fauna. And it’s a representational decline. Global warming is highly intangible, but these glaciers are concrete. They’re symbolic elements of the American West.”