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Deep in California’s Sierra mountain range, enormous glaciers are disappearing and projected to dissolve completely by the beginning of the coming hundred years, leaving ice-free peaks for the initial occasion in recorded human existence, new research has discovered.

Ancient Origins of Sierra Nevada Glaciers

The mountain range’s ice sheets are older than previously known, tracing back tens of thousands of years, with some as old as the last ice age, according to a report released recently.

“Our pieced-together ice age record indicates that a coming glacier-free Sierra Nevada is unprecedented in the history of humankind since known peopling of the Americas ~20,000 years ago,” the article declares.

Worldwide Risk to Ice Formations

Glaciers globally are under threat during the climate emergency. A research published in May of the current year found that nearly 40% of glaciers are doomed to thaw because of global heating. If such heating rises by 2.7C, which the world is currently on course for, as many as 75% will disappear, causing ocean level increase and large-scale relocation.

Throughout the Western United States, glaciers have diminished significantly since they were first documented in the 1800s, according to the article.

Focus on Major Glaciers

The recent study focuses on several Sierra Nevada glacial masses – the Palisade, Lyell, Maclure and Conness glaciers – that are among the largest and likely oldest in the range. Their durability amid global heating makes them “bellwethers” for examining ice loss in the western region, the article states.

Study Techniques and Findings

Scientists examined newly uncovered bedrock around the glaciers and collected specimens to determine how long the area was blanketed by glacial ice. They found that the ice masses have covered swaths of the mountain system for far longer than earlier believed – since prior to humans inhabited North America.

The state's glaciers reached their maximum positions as long ago as thirty thousand years ago, the article’s authors stated, and a particular of the ice bodies researchers studied is believed to have expanded 7,000 years ago, earlier than once thought. The loss of glaciers, for the first time in human history, shows the profound effects of the climate change, a researcher of the investigation said.

Environmental and Representational Consequences

“We’ll be the initial ones to see the ice-free peaks,” said Andrew Jones, the study’s lead author. “This has environmental implications for plants and animals. And it’s a representational decline. Global warming is very abstract, but these glaciers are concrete. They’re iconic features of the American West.”