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Deep in California’s Sierra mountain range, massive glaciers are disappearing and projected to melt away entirely by the start of the next century, leaving summits without glaciers for the initial occasion in human history, recent studies has found.

Ancient Origins of Sierra Range Ice Masses

The mountain range’s ice sheets are older than earlier understood, tracing back many thousands of years, with some as ancient as the last ice age, according to a report published last week.

“Our reconstructed ice age record indicates that a coming ice-free Sierra Nevada is unprecedented in the history of humankind since documented settlement of the Americas around twenty thousand years ago,” the article declares.

Global Threat to Glaciers

Ice masses globally are under threat amid the climate crisis. A research released in May of this year found that almost forty percent of glaciers are doomed to melt because of climate warming. If this warming rises by 2.7C, which the world is currently on course for, as up to 75% will vanish, causing sea level rise and mass displacement.

Across the American west, ice formations have diminished substantially 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 glaciers – that are some of the largest and likely oldest in the mountain chain. Their durability during global heating makes them “indicators” for studying glacier disappearance in the west, the article notes.

Study Techniques and Findings

Researchers examined recently exposed base rock around the glaciers and collected specimens to determine how long the region was blanketed by glacial ice. They determined that the ice masses have enveloped swaths of the range for far longer than previously known – since prior to humans inhabited North America.

The state's glaciers reached their maximum positions as long ago as thirty thousand years ago, the study's researchers stated, and a particular of the ice bodies 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, demonstrates the dramatic effects of the climate change, one author of the study said.

Environmental and Representational Consequences

“We’ll be the first to see the ice-free peaks,” said the study's lead researcher, the study’s lead author. “This has environmental implications 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 Western U.S..”