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Far in the state of Sierra mountain range, enormous glaciers are vanishing and projected to melt away completely by the start of the coming hundred years, leaving summits without glaciers for the first time in recorded human existence, recent studies has discovered.

Ancient Origins of Sierra Nevada Ice Masses

The mountain range’s glaciers are more ancient than earlier understood, tracing back tens of thousands of years, with some as ancient as the last ice age, according to an article published recently.

“Our pieced-together ice age record shows that a coming ice-free Sierra Nevada is unprecedented in human history since known settlement of the Americas around twenty thousand years ago,” the article declares.

Global Threat to Ice Formations

Glaciers globally are under threat amid the climate crisis. A study released in the month of May of this year found that nearly 40% of ice sheets are destined to melt because of climate warming. If such heating rises by 2.7 degrees Celsius, which the world is currently on course for, as up to seventy-five percent will disappear, causing sea level rise and large-scale relocation.

Throughout the Western United States, glaciers have diminished significantly since they were initially recorded in the 1800s, according to the report.

Focus on Major Ice Bodies

The recent study centers on several Sierra Nevada glaciers – the Palisade, Lyell, Maclure and Conness ice sheets – that are among the biggest and likely oldest in the mountain chain. Their longevity during global heating makes them “bellwethers” for studying ice loss in the west, the article states.

Study Techniques and Results

Scientists looked at recently exposed bedrock around the ice formations and collected specimens to determine how extensively the area was covered by glacial ice. They determined that the glaciers have covered swaths of the range for far longer than earlier believed – since prior to humans inhabited North America.

California’s glaciers reached their peak extents as early as 30,000 years ago, the article’s authors wrote, and one of the glaciers experts looked at is believed to have expanded 7,000 years ago, earlier than previously believed. The disappearance of ice formations, for the initial time in recorded history, demonstrates the profound effects of the climate change, a researcher of the study said.

Environmental and Symbolic Impact

“We’ll be the first to see the ice-free peaks,” said the study's lead researcher, the principal investigator. “This has ecological ramifications for flora and fauna. And it’s a representational decline. Climate change is very abstract, but these ice masses are tangible. They’re iconic features of the American West.”