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Deep in California’s Sierra mountain range, enormous ice formations are disappearing and expected to melt away entirely by the start of the coming hundred years, resulting in ice-free peaks for the first time in human history, new research has found.

Age-Old 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 old as the most recent glacial period, according to a report released recently.

“Our pieced-together glacial history shows that a future ice-free Sierra Nevada is without precedent in the history of humankind since documented settlement of the Americas ~20,000 years ago,” the study declares.

Worldwide Threat to Ice Formations

Ice masses globally are at risk amid the climate emergency. A research released in the month of May of this year found that almost forty percent of glaciers are doomed to melt because of climate warming. If this warming increases by 2.7C, which the world is presently on course for, as up to seventy-five percent will disappear, causing sea level rise and large-scale relocation.

Across the American west, ice formations have shrunk substantially since they were first documented in the late 19th century, according to the article.

Concentration on Major Glaciers

The new research centers on several Sierra Nevada glaciers – the Palisade, Lyell, Maclure and Conness glaciers – that are some of the biggest and probably oldest in the range. Their durability during climate warming makes them “bellwethers” for examining ice loss in the west, the article notes.

Study Techniques and Findings

Researchers examined recently exposed bedrock around the glaciers and collected specimens to ascertain how extensively the region was covered by ice. They determined that the glaciers have covered large areas of the range for much longer than previously known – since before humans inhabited North America.

The state's glacial sheets reached their maximum positions as early as 30,000 years ago, the article’s authors wrote, and a particular of the glaciers experts studied is believed to have expanded seven thousand years ago, earlier than once thought. The disappearance of glaciers, for the initial time in recorded history, demonstrates the dramatic effects of the climate change, one author of the study said.

Ecological and Symbolic Consequences

“We’ll be the first to witness the glacier-less summits,” said Andrew Jones, the principal investigator. “This has ecological implications for flora and fauna. And it’s a representational decline. Global warming is highly intangible, but these glaciers are tangible. They’re symbolic elements of the American West.”