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Deep in the state of Sierra mountain range, enormous glaciers are disappearing and projected to dissolve completely by the beginning of the coming hundred years, resulting in summits without glaciers for the first time in human history, new research has found.

Age-Old Beginnings of Sierra Nevada Ice Masses

The range's glaciers are more ancient than earlier understood, tracing back many thousands of years, with a few as old as the most recent glacial period, according to a report published recently.

“Our pieced-together glacial history shows that a coming ice-free Sierra Nevada is unprecedented in human history since documented settlement of the Americas around twenty thousand years ago,” the article declares.

Global Risk to Glaciers

Glaciers around the world are under threat amid the climate emergency. A research released in the month of May of this year determined that nearly 40% of glaciers are doomed to thaw because of climate warming. If such heating increases by 2.7C, which the world is currently on track for, as up to seventy-five percent will disappear, leading to ocean level increase and large-scale relocation.

Across the American west, ice formations have diminished significantly since they were first documented in the 1800s, according to the report.

Focus on Major Glaciers

The recent study centers on four Sierra Nevada glaciers – the Conness, Maclure, Lyell and Palisade ice sheets – that are some of the largest and probably oldest in the range. Their durability during climate warming makes them “bellwethers” for studying ice loss in the western region, the study notes.

Research Methods and Results

Researchers looked at newly uncovered bedrock around the glaciers and collected specimens to ascertain how long the area was covered by ice. They determined that the ice masses have covered swaths of the range for far longer than previously known – since prior to people occupied North America.

California’s glacial sheets reached their peak extents as early as 30,000 years ago, the study's researchers wrote, and one of the glaciers experts studied is believed to have expanded seven thousand years ago, sooner than previously believed. The disappearance of glaciers, for the initial time in recorded history, demonstrates the profound impacts of the climate crisis, a researcher of the study said.

Ecological and Symbolic Consequences

“We’ll be the initial ones to witness 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 ice masses are concrete. They’re iconic features of the American West.”