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Deep in California’s Sierra Nevada, massive glaciers are disappearing and expected to dissolve completely by the start of the next century, resulting in summits without glaciers for the initial occasion in recorded human existence, recent studies has discovered.

Age-Old Origins of Sierra Range Ice Masses

The mountain range’s glaciers are more ancient than previously known, dating back tens of thousands of years, with a few as old as the last ice age, according to a report published recently.

“Our pieced-together ice age record indicates that a coming glacier-free Sierra Nevada is without precedent in human history since known settlement of the Americas around twenty thousand years ago,” the article states.

Worldwide Risk to Glaciers

Ice masses around the world are under threat amid the climate crisis. A study released in May of the current year determined that almost forty percent of glaciers are doomed to thaw because of climate warming. If this warming increases by 2.7C, which the planet is currently on course for, as up to 75% will vanish, leading to ocean level increase and large-scale relocation.

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

Focus on Key Ice Bodies

The new research centers on several Sierra Nevada glaciers – the Palisade, Lyell, Maclure and Conness ice sheets – that are some of the largest and likely most ancient in the range. Their durability during climate warming makes them “indicators” for studying ice loss in the west, the study states.

Research Methods and Results

Researchers examined newly uncovered base rock around the ice formations and took samples to ascertain how long the region was blanketed by glacial ice. They found that the glaciers have enveloped swaths of the range for far longer than earlier believed – since prior to people occupied North America.

The state's glaciers reached their peak extents as early as thirty thousand years ago, the study's researchers stated, and a particular of the ice bodies experts looked at is thought to have grown seven thousand years ago, sooner than previously believed. The loss of ice formations, for the first time in human history, demonstrates the profound impacts of the climate change, one author of the investigation said.

Environmental and Symbolic Impact

“We’ll be the initial ones to witness the glacier-less summits,” said the study's lead researcher, the study’s lead author. “This has ecological ramifications for plants and animals. And it’s a representational decline. Global warming is highly intangible, but these ice masses are tangible. They’re symbolic elements of the American West.”