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Deep in California’s Sierra Nevada, massive glaciers are vanishing and expected to melt away completely by the start of the coming hundred years, resulting in ice-free peaks for the initial occasion in recorded human existence, recent studies has discovered.

Age-Old Origins of Sierra Nevada Glaciers

The range's ice sheets are older than earlier understood, dating back tens of thousands of years, with a few as old as the most recent glacial period, according to an article published recently.

“Our reconstructed glacial history indicates that a future ice-free Sierra Nevada is without precedent in the history of humankind since documented peopling of the Americas ~20,000 years ago,” the article declares.

Global Risk to Ice Formations

Ice masses around the world are at risk amid the climate emergency. A study published in the month of May of the current year determined that nearly 40% of ice sheets are doomed to thaw because of climate warming. If this warming increases by 2.7C, which the world is currently on course for, as many as 75% will disappear, leading to sea level rise and large-scale relocation.

Across the Western United States, ice formations have shrunk significantly since they were initially recorded in the 1800s, according to the article.

Concentration on Key Ice Bodies

The recent study focuses on four Sierra Nevada glacial masses – the Palisade, Lyell, Maclure and Conness glaciers – that are some of the largest and probably most ancient in the range. Their longevity amid global heating makes them “indicators” for studying glacier disappearance in the western region, the article states.

Research Methods and Results

Scientists looked at recently exposed bedrock around the glaciers and took samples to determine how extensively the area was covered by glacial ice. They determined that the ice masses have covered swaths of the mountain system for much longer than previously known – since before people occupied North America.

The state's glacial sheets attained their maximum positions as long ago as 30,000 years ago, the article’s authors stated, and a particular of the ice bodies researchers studied is believed to have grown seven thousand years ago, earlier than once thought. The loss of glaciers, for the first time in recorded history, shows the dramatic impacts of the climate crisis, a researcher of the study said.

Environmental and Representational Consequences

“We’ll be the initial ones to see the ice-free peaks,” said Andrew Jones, the principal investigator. “This has environmental implications for flora and fauna. 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..”