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Deep in California’s Sierra Nevada, massive glaciers are vanishing and expected to melt away entirely by the start of the next century, resulting in ice-free peaks for the initial occasion in recorded human existence, new research has discovered.

Ancient Beginnings of Sierra Range Ice Masses

The mountain range’s ice sheets are more ancient than previously known, tracing back many thousands of years, with some as ancient as the last ice age, according to a report released recently.

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

Worldwide Risk to Ice Formations

Ice masses globally are under threat amid the climate emergency. A research published in May of the current year determined that almost forty percent of ice sheets are doomed to thaw because of climate warming. If such heating rises by 2.7C, which the planet is presently on track for, as up to 75% will disappear, causing sea level rise and large-scale relocation.

Across the American west, ice formations have shrunk substantially since they were first documented in the late 19th century, according to the report.

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 durability during climate warming makes them “bellwethers” for examining ice loss in the west, the article notes.

Research Methods and Findings

Scientists examined newly uncovered bedrock around the ice formations and took samples to determine how long the area was covered by glacial ice. They determined that the ice masses have enveloped large areas of the range for much longer than earlier believed – since before people inhabited North America.

The state's glacial sheets attained their peak extents as early as 30,000 years ago, the article’s authors wrote, and a particular of the glaciers experts looked at is thought to have expanded seven thousand years ago, sooner than previously believed. The disappearance of glaciers, for the first time in human history, shows the dramatic impacts of the climate crisis, one author of the investigation said.

Ecological and Symbolic Consequences

“We’ll be the initial ones to witness the ice-free peaks,” said Andrew Jones, the study’s lead author. “This has environmental implications for flora and fauna. And it’s a representational decline. Climate change is very abstract, but these ice masses are tangible. They’re symbolic elements of the Western U.S..”