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Deep in California’s Sierra mountain range, enormous glaciers are disappearing and expected to melt away completely by the start of the coming hundred years, leaving summits without glaciers for the first time in recorded human existence, recent studies has discovered.

Age-Old Beginnings of Sierra Range Ice Masses

The range's glaciers are older than earlier understood, dating back many thousands of years, with some as old as the most recent glacial period, according to a report published last week.

“Our reconstructed glacial history indicates that a coming ice-free Sierra Nevada is without precedent in the history of humankind since documented settlement of the Americas around twenty thousand years ago,” the article states.

Global Risk to Glaciers

Ice masses globally are at risk during the climate emergency. A study released in the month of May of the current year found that nearly 40% of glaciers are doomed to thaw because of global heating. If such heating rises by 2.7 degrees Celsius, which the world is presently on track for, as many as seventy-five percent will vanish, causing sea level rise and mass displacement.

Throughout the Western United States, ice formations have diminished substantially since they were first documented in the late 19th century, according to the article.

Concentration on Major Ice Bodies

The new research focuses on four Sierra Nevada glacial masses – the Palisade, Lyell, Maclure and Conness ice sheets – that are among the largest and probably most ancient in the mountain chain. Their longevity amid climate warming makes them “bellwethers” for studying ice loss in the western region, the study states.

Study Techniques and Results

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

The state's glaciers reached their peak extents as early as thirty thousand years ago, the study's researchers stated, and one of the ice bodies experts looked at is thought to have grown 7,000 years ago, earlier than previously believed. The disappearance of ice formations, for the first time in recorded history, shows the dramatic effects of the climate change, a researcher of the study said.

Environmental and Representational Consequences

“We’ll be the initial ones to witness the ice-free peaks,” said the study's lead researcher, the study’s lead author. “This has environmental implications for flora and fauna. And it’s a representational decline. Global warming is highly intangible, but these glaciers are tangible. They’re symbolic elements of the American West.”