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Far in California’s Sierra Nevada, massive glaciers are disappearing and projected to melt away entirely by the start of the coming hundred years, resulting in ice-free peaks for the first time in recorded human existence, new research has discovered.

Age-Old Beginnings of Sierra Nevada Glaciers

The mountain range’s ice sheets are older than previously known, tracing back many 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 indicates that a future ice-free Sierra Nevada is without precedent in the history of humankind since documented settlement of the Americas ~20,000 years ago,” the study states.

Global Risk to Ice Formations

Ice masses globally are at risk during the climate emergency. A research published in May of the current year found that nearly 40% of ice sheets are doomed to melt because of climate warming. If this warming rises by 2.7C, which the planet is presently on track for, as many as seventy-five percent will disappear, leading to sea level rise and large-scale relocation.

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

Focus on Major Ice Bodies

The recent study centers on four Sierra Nevada glacial masses – the Palisade, Lyell, Maclure and Conness ice sheets – that are some of the biggest and likely most ancient in the mountain chain. Their durability amid global heating makes them “bellwethers” for examining ice loss in the western region, the article states.

Study Techniques and Results

Researchers looked at newly uncovered base rock around the ice formations and collected specimens to determine how long the region was covered by glacial ice. They found that the ice masses have covered swaths of the range for far longer than previously known – since prior to humans inhabited North America.

The state's glacial sheets attained their peak extents as long ago as thirty thousand years ago, the study's researchers wrote, and a particular of the ice bodies experts looked at is thought to have grown 7,000 years ago, sooner than once thought. The loss of glaciers, for the first time in human history, demonstrates the profound impacts of the climate change, one author of the investigation said.

Environmental and Representational Impact

“We’ll be the initial ones to witness the ice-free peaks,” said the study's lead researcher, the principal investigator. “This has ecological ramifications for plants and animals. And it’s a representational decline. Climate change is highly intangible, but these ice masses are tangible. They’re iconic features of the American West.”