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Deep in California’s Sierra mountain range, massive glaciers are vanishing and projected to melt away completely by the beginning of the next century, leaving summits without glaciers for the first time in recorded human existence, new research has discovered.

Ancient Beginnings of Sierra Nevada Ice Masses

The mountain range’s glaciers are more ancient than earlier understood, tracing back many thousands of years, with some as old as the most recent glacial period, according to an article released recently.

“Our pieced-together ice age record shows that a coming ice-free Sierra Nevada is without precedent in human history since documented peopling of the Americas around twenty thousand years ago,” the article states.

Global Risk to Glaciers

Glaciers around the world are at risk amid the climate emergency. A research released in the month of May of this year determined that nearly 40% of glaciers are destined to thaw because of global heating. If such heating increases by 2.7C, which the world is presently on track for, as up to seventy-five percent will vanish, leading to ocean level increase and large-scale relocation.

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

Focus on Key Ice Bodies

The new research centers on four Sierra Nevada glaciers – the Palisade, Lyell, Maclure and Conness glaciers – that are some of the largest and likely most ancient in the range. Their longevity amid climate warming makes them “indicators” for studying ice loss in the west, the study notes.

Research Methods and Results

Scientists examined recently exposed base rock around the glaciers and collected specimens to determine how extensively the area was covered by glacial ice. They determined that the glaciers have enveloped swaths of the mountain system for far longer than earlier believed – since before humans inhabited North America.

The state's glaciers reached their peak extents as long ago as thirty thousand years ago, the article’s authors wrote, and one of the glaciers researchers studied is believed to have grown 7,000 years ago, earlier than once thought. The disappearance of ice formations, for the initial time in human history, shows 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 glacier-less summits,” said the study's lead researcher, the principal investigator. “This has environmental implications for plants and animals. And it’s a representational decline. Global warming is very abstract, but these glaciers are tangible. They’re symbolic elements of the Western U.S..”