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Far in California’s Sierra Nevada, massive 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 recorded human existence, recent studies has discovered.

Age-Old Origins of Sierra Nevada Glaciers

The mountain range’s glaciers are more ancient than earlier understood, dating back tens of thousands of years, with a few as old as the last ice age, according to an article released recently.

“Our reconstructed glacial history shows that a coming glacier-free Sierra Nevada is unprecedented in human history since known peopling of the Americas ~20,000 years ago,” the article declares.

Global Threat to Glaciers

Ice masses globally are at risk amid the climate emergency. A research published in May of the current year determined that nearly 40% of glaciers are doomed to melt because of climate warming. If such heating rises by 2.7 degrees Celsius, which the planet is currently on track for, as many as seventy-five percent will disappear, leading to sea level rise and large-scale relocation.

Throughout the American west, ice formations have diminished significantly since they were first documented in the late 19th century, according to the article.

Concentration on Major Ice Bodies

The recent study centers on four Sierra Nevada glacial masses – the Conness, Maclure, Lyell and Palisade ice sheets – that are among the biggest and likely oldest in the mountain chain. Their longevity during climate warming makes them “bellwethers” for studying ice loss in the west, the study states.

Study Techniques and Findings

Researchers examined newly uncovered base rock around the glaciers and took samples to determine how long the area was covered by glacial ice. They determined that the glaciers have covered large areas of the mountain system for much longer than earlier believed – since prior to humans inhabited North America.

California’s glaciers reached their peak extents as early as 30,000 years ago, the study's researchers stated, and one of the ice bodies experts looked at is believed to have grown seven thousand years ago, earlier than once thought. The loss of ice formations, for the initial time in recorded history, shows the dramatic effects of the climate crisis, one author of the study said.

Ecological and Symbolic Consequences

“We’ll be the first to witness the glacier-less summits,” said the study's lead researcher, the principal investigator. “This has ecological implications for flora and fauna. And it’s a symbolic loss. Global warming is very abstract, but these ice masses are concrete. They’re symbolic elements of the Western U.S..”