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Far in California’s Sierra Nevada, enormous glaciers are vanishing and projected to dissolve completely by the beginning of the next century, resulting in ice-free peaks for the first time in recorded human existence, recent studies has found.

Age-Old Beginnings of Sierra Nevada Glaciers

The range's ice sheets are more ancient than previously known, tracing back tens of thousands of years, with a few as old as the last ice age, according to an article released last week.

“Our reconstructed ice age record shows that a future 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.

Worldwide Risk to Glaciers

Ice masses around the world are under threat during the climate crisis. A study released in the month of May of the current year determined that nearly 40% of glaciers are destined to thaw because of climate warming. If such heating rises by 2.7C, which the world is presently on track for, as many as 75% will disappear, causing ocean level increase and mass displacement.

Throughout the Western United States, glaciers have shrunk substantially since they were first documented in the late 19th century, according to the report.

Focus on Key Glaciers

The recent study focuses on several Sierra Nevada glacial masses – the Palisade, Lyell, Maclure and Conness glaciers – that are among the largest and probably most ancient in the range. Their longevity amid climate warming makes them “bellwethers” for examining glacier disappearance in the western region, the study notes.

Study Techniques and Findings

Scientists examined newly uncovered base rock around the glaciers and took samples to determine how extensively the region was blanketed by glacial ice. They determined that the ice masses have covered large areas of the mountain system for much longer than previously known – since before humans occupied North America.

The state's glacial sheets attained their peak extents as long ago as thirty thousand years ago, the article’s authors wrote, and a particular of the ice bodies researchers looked at is thought to have expanded 7,000 years ago, sooner than previously believed. The disappearance of ice formations, for the first time in recorded history, demonstrates the profound impacts of the climate crisis, a researcher of the investigation said.

Environmental and Representational Consequences

“We’ll be the first to see the glacier-less summits,” said Andrew Jones, the study’s lead author. “This has ecological implications for plants and animals. And it’s a representational decline. Climate change is highly intangible, but these glaciers are tangible. They’re symbolic elements of the American West.”