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Far in California’s Sierra mountain range, enormous ice formations are disappearing and expected to melt away entirely by the beginning of the coming hundred years, resulting in ice-free peaks for the first time in recorded human existence, recent studies has found.

Ancient Beginnings of Sierra Range Ice Masses

The mountain range’s glaciers are more ancient than earlier understood, dating back tens of thousands of years, with some as old as the last ice age, according to a report released recently.

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

Global Risk to Glaciers

Ice masses globally are under threat during the climate crisis. A research published in the month of May of this year determined that almost forty percent of ice sheets are destined to thaw because of climate warming. If such heating rises by 2.7 degrees Celsius, which the world is currently on track for, as up to seventy-five percent will disappear, causing ocean level increase and mass displacement.

Throughout the Western United States, glaciers have diminished significantly since they were first documented in the late 19th century, according to the report.

Focus on Key Glaciers

The new research centers on several Sierra Nevada glaciers – the Conness, Maclure, Lyell and Palisade glaciers – that are some of the largest and likely most ancient in the range. Their durability amid global heating makes them “indicators” for studying glacier disappearance in the west, the article notes.

Study Techniques and Findings

Researchers examined recently exposed bedrock around the ice formations and took samples to ascertain how long the region was covered by ice. They found that the glaciers have covered swaths of the mountain system for far longer than earlier believed – since before humans occupied North America.

The state's glacial sheets reached their peak extents as long ago as thirty thousand years ago, the article’s authors stated, and a particular of the ice bodies experts studied is believed to have grown seven thousand years ago, earlier than previously believed. The disappearance of glaciers, for the first time in human history, demonstrates the dramatic effects of the climate crisis, one author of the investigation said.

Ecological and Symbolic Impact

“We’ll be the first to witness the glacier-less summits,” said Andrew Jones, the principal investigator. “This has environmental implications for plants and animals. And it’s a representational decline. Global warming is highly intangible, but these glaciers are concrete. They’re iconic features of the Western U.S..”