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Deep in the state of Sierra mountain range, massive glaciers are vanishing and expected to melt away entirely by the beginning of the coming hundred years, resulting in summits without glaciers for the first time in human history, recent studies has found.

Age-Old Origins of Sierra Nevada Glaciers

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 reconstructed glacial history shows that a coming glacier-free Sierra Nevada is unprecedented in human history since documented peopling of the Americas around twenty thousand years ago,” the article declares.

Worldwide Risk to Glaciers

Glaciers around the world are at risk during the climate emergency. A study published in the month of May of this year found that almost forty percent of ice sheets are doomed to melt because of climate warming. If this warming rises by 2.7C, which the world is presently on track for, as many as 75% will vanish, causing ocean level increase and mass displacement.

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

Focus on Major Glaciers

The new research focuses on four Sierra Nevada glacial masses – the Conness, Maclure, Lyell and Palisade glaciers – that are some of the biggest and likely oldest in the range. Their durability during global heating makes them “bellwethers” for studying glacier disappearance in the western region, the article notes.

Research Methods and Results

Scientists examined recently exposed base rock around the ice formations and collected specimens to ascertain how long the area was blanketed by ice. They determined that the glaciers have enveloped swaths of the range for much longer than previously known – since before people inhabited North America.

The state's glaciers attained their peak extents as long ago as thirty thousand 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 ice formations, for the initial time in recorded history, shows the profound effects of the climate change, one author of the investigation said.

Ecological and Representational Impact

“We’ll be the first 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 symbolic loss. Global warming is very abstract, but these ice masses are tangible. They’re symbolic elements of the American West.”