🔗 Share this article

Far in the state of Sierra mountain range, enormous ice formations are vanishing and projected to dissolve completely by the start of the coming hundred years, resulting in ice-free peaks for the initial occasion in human history, new research has found.

Age-Old Beginnings of Sierra Nevada Ice Masses

The range's glaciers are older than earlier understood, dating back tens of thousands of years, with a few as old as the last ice age, according to a report released recently.

“Our pieced-together ice age record indicates that a coming ice-free Sierra Nevada is without precedent in the history of humankind since known settlement of the Americas ~20,000 years ago,” the study declares.

Global Threat to Glaciers

Glaciers globally are at risk during the climate crisis. A study released in the month of May of the current year determined that nearly 40% of ice sheets are destined to melt because of climate warming. If such heating rises by 2.7C, which the planet is presently on course for, as many as 75% will disappear, leading to ocean level increase and mass displacement.

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

Focus on Key Ice Bodies

The new research centers on several Sierra Nevada glacial masses – the Palisade, Lyell, Maclure and Conness ice sheets – that are among the biggest and likely oldest in the mountain chain. Their longevity amid climate warming makes them “bellwethers” for studying glacier disappearance in the west, the article notes.

Study Techniques and Results

Scientists examined newly uncovered bedrock around the glaciers and took samples to ascertain how extensively the area was covered by glacial ice. They found that the ice masses have enveloped large areas of the range for far longer than previously known – since before people occupied North America.

California’s glaciers reached their peak extents as long ago as thirty thousand years ago, the study's researchers stated, and one of the glaciers researchers studied is thought to have expanded seven thousand years ago, sooner than once thought. The disappearance of ice formations, for the initial time in recorded history, shows the dramatic effects of the climate crisis, a researcher of the investigation said.

Environmental and Representational Impact

“We’ll be the first 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 very abstract, but these ice masses are concrete. They’re symbolic elements of the Western U.S..”