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Deep in California’s Sierra mountain range, enormous glaciers are disappearing and expected to melt away completely by the beginning of the next century, resulting in ice-free peaks for the first time in recorded human existence, recent studies has discovered.

Ancient Origins of Sierra Range Glaciers

The mountain range’s glaciers are more ancient than previously known, dating back many thousands of years, with a few as old as the last ice age, according to a report published recently.

“Our pieced-together ice age record indicates that a future ice-free Sierra Nevada is unprecedented in the history of humankind since known settlement of the Americas around twenty thousand years ago,” the study declares.

Worldwide Threat to Glaciers

Glaciers globally are under threat during the climate crisis. 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 climate warming. If such heating rises by 2.7C, which the planet is presently on course for, as many as seventy-five percent will vanish, causing ocean level increase and mass displacement.

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

Concentration on Key Ice Bodies

The new research focuses on four 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 durability amid global heating makes them “indicators” for studying glacier disappearance in the west, the article states.

Research Methods and Results

Researchers examined newly uncovered bedrock around the glaciers and collected specimens to ascertain how extensively the area was covered by ice. They determined that the ice masses have enveloped large areas of the mountain system for far longer than previously known – since before people inhabited North America.

The state's glaciers attained their maximum positions as early as thirty thousand years ago, the study's researchers stated, and one of the ice bodies experts studied is thought to have expanded 7,000 years ago, earlier than previously believed. The loss of ice formations, for the initial time in human history, shows the dramatic effects of the climate change, one author of the investigation said.

Ecological and Symbolic Consequences

“We’ll be the initial ones to see the glacier-less summits,” said Andrew Jones, the study’s lead author. “This has environmental ramifications for flora and fauna. And it’s a representational decline. Global warming is highly intangible, but these ice masses are concrete. They’re symbolic elements of the Western U.S..”