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Deep in the state of Sierra Nevada, enormous glaciers are disappearing and expected to dissolve entirely by the beginning of the coming hundred years, leaving summits without glaciers for the initial occasion in recorded human existence, recent studies has found.

Age-Old Origins of Sierra Range Ice Masses

The mountain range’s glaciers are older than earlier understood, tracing back many thousands of years, with a few as old as the last ice age, according to an article published last week.

“Our reconstructed glacial history shows that a coming ice-free Sierra Nevada is without precedent in human history since documented settlement of the Americas ~20,000 years ago,” the article states.

Global Risk to Ice Formations

Ice masses globally are at risk amid the climate crisis. A study released in May of the current year found that almost forty percent of ice sheets are destined to melt because of climate warming. If this warming increases by 2.7 degrees Celsius, which the world is currently on course for, as up to 75% will vanish, causing sea level rise and mass displacement.

Across the American west, ice formations have diminished substantially since they were initially recorded in the late 19th century, according to the article.

Focus on Major Ice Bodies

The new research focuses on four Sierra Nevada glacial masses – the Palisade, Lyell, Maclure and Conness glaciers – that are some of the largest and probably oldest in the mountain chain. Their durability amid climate warming makes them “bellwethers” for studying ice loss in the western region, the article states.

Research Methods and Findings

Scientists examined newly uncovered bedrock around the ice formations and took samples to determine how extensively the area was covered by ice. They found that the glaciers have covered large areas of the range for much longer than previously known – since before humans inhabited North America.

California’s glaciers attained their peak extents as long ago as thirty thousand years ago, the article’s authors stated, and a particular of the glaciers researchers looked at is thought to have expanded seven thousand years ago, earlier than once thought. The loss of glaciers, for the initial time in human history, shows the profound impacts of the climate crisis, one author of the investigation said.

Environmental 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 ecological ramifications for plants and animals. And it’s a representational decline. Climate change is highly intangible, but these ice masses are tangible. They’re symbolic elements of the Western U.S..”