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Far in the state of Sierra mountain range, enormous glaciers are vanishing and projected to dissolve completely by the beginning of the coming hundred years, resulting in summits without glaciers for the first time in human history, new research has found.

Ancient Origins of Sierra Range Ice Masses

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

“Our reconstructed glacial history indicates that a coming glacier-free Sierra Nevada is unprecedented in human history since documented peopling of the Americas ~20,000 years ago,” the article states.

Global Threat to Glaciers

Ice masses globally are at risk amid the climate crisis. A study released in May of the current year determined that almost forty percent of glaciers are destined to melt because of global heating. If this warming increases by 2.7 degrees Celsius, which the world is presently on course for, as up to seventy-five percent will vanish, leading to ocean level increase and mass displacement.

Throughout the Western United States, ice formations have shrunk significantly since they were initially recorded in the late 19th century, according to the article.

Concentration on Key Ice Bodies

The new research focuses on four Sierra Nevada glaciers – the Conness, Maclure, Lyell and Palisade ice sheets – that are some of the biggest and probably most ancient in the mountain chain. Their longevity amid climate warming makes them “indicators” for examining glacier disappearance in the western region, the study states.

Research Methods and Results

Researchers examined newly uncovered base rock around the glaciers and collected specimens to determine how extensively the region was blanketed by glacial ice. They determined that the glaciers have covered large areas of the mountain system for far longer than previously known – since before people inhabited North America.

California’s glaciers reached their peak extents as long ago as thirty thousand years ago, the study's researchers stated, and a particular of the glaciers researchers studied is thought to have grown 7,000 years ago, earlier than previously believed. The disappearance of glaciers, for the first time in recorded history, shows the profound impacts of the climate crisis, one author of the investigation said.

Environmental and Representational Consequences

“We’ll be the initial ones to witness the glacier-less summits,” said the study's lead researcher, the study’s lead author. “This has ecological implications for flora and fauna. And it’s a representational decline. Global warming is very abstract, but these glaciers are tangible. They’re symbolic elements of the American West.”