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Far in California’s Sierra mountain range, enormous glaciers are disappearing and expected to dissolve completely by the beginning of the coming hundred years, resulting in ice-free peaks for the initial occasion in recorded human existence, recent studies has found.

Ancient Origins of Sierra Nevada Ice Masses

The range's ice sheets are older than previously known, tracing back tens of thousands of years, with a few as old as the last ice age, according to a report released last week.

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

Worldwide Risk to Glaciers

Glaciers around the world are at risk amid the climate crisis. A research published in the month of May of this year determined that nearly 40% of glaciers are doomed to melt because of climate warming. If such heating increases by 2.7C, which the world is currently on course for, as many as 75% will vanish, causing ocean level increase and large-scale relocation.

Across the Western United States, glaciers have shrunk substantially since they were first documented in the 1800s, according to the report.

Concentration on Key Glaciers

The recent study focuses on several Sierra Nevada glaciers – the Palisade, Lyell, Maclure and Conness glaciers – that are some of the biggest and probably most ancient in the mountain chain. Their longevity amid climate warming makes them “bellwethers” for studying ice loss in the west, the study notes.

Research Methods and Results

Researchers looked at newly uncovered bedrock around the glaciers and collected specimens to determine how extensively the region was covered by glacial ice. They determined that the glaciers have enveloped large areas of the range for far longer than earlier believed – since prior to people inhabited North America.

California’s glaciers attained their maximum positions as long ago as 30,000 years ago, the article’s authors stated, and one of the glaciers researchers studied is thought to have expanded 7,000 years ago, sooner than once thought. The loss of ice formations, for the initial time in recorded history, shows the dramatic impacts of the climate change, a researcher of the study said.

Environmental and Symbolic Consequences

“We’ll be the initial ones to witness the ice-free peaks,” said the study's lead researcher, the study’s lead author. “This has environmental implications for plants and animals. And it’s a symbolic loss. Global warming is very abstract, but these ice masses are concrete. They’re symbolic elements of the Western U.S..”