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Far in the state of Sierra Nevada, enormous ice formations are vanishing and expected to dissolve entirely by the beginning of the coming hundred years, resulting in summits without glaciers for the first time in human history, new research has found.

Age-Old Beginnings of Sierra Nevada Glaciers

The mountain range’s ice sheets are more ancient than earlier understood, dating back tens of thousands of years, with a few as ancient as the last ice age, according to a report published last week.

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

Worldwide Threat to Ice Formations

Glaciers globally are under threat amid the climate emergency. A study published in the month of May of the current year determined that nearly 40% of glaciers are destined to melt because of global heating. If such heating increases by 2.7 degrees Celsius, which the planet is currently on course for, as many as 75% will disappear, causing sea level rise and large-scale relocation.

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

Concentration on Key Glaciers

The new research focuses on several Sierra Nevada glacial masses – the Palisade, Lyell, Maclure and Conness ice sheets – that are among the biggest and probably most ancient in the range. Their durability amid climate warming makes them “indicators” for examining ice loss in the western region, the article states.

Research Methods and Results

Researchers examined recently exposed base rock around the ice formations and took samples to ascertain how extensively the area was blanketed by ice. They found that the ice masses have enveloped swaths of the mountain system for far longer than previously known – since before humans occupied North America.

California’s glaciers attained their maximum positions as long ago as thirty thousand years ago, the article’s authors wrote, and a particular of the ice bodies researchers looked at is thought to have grown 7,000 years ago, earlier than previously believed. The loss of ice formations, for the initial time in human history, demonstrates the dramatic impacts of the climate change, a researcher of the investigation said.

Ecological and Representational Consequences

“We’ll be the initial ones to see the ice-free peaks,” said Andrew Jones, the principal investigator. “This has ecological implications for plants and animals. And it’s a symbolic loss. Climate change is highly intangible, but these glaciers are tangible. They’re symbolic elements of the Western U.S..”