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Deep in California’s Sierra mountain range, massive ice formations are disappearing and projected to melt away entirely by the start of the coming hundred years, leaving summits without glaciers for the first time in human history, new research has found.

Ancient Beginnings of Sierra Range Glaciers

The range's glaciers are more ancient than previously known, dating back many thousands of years, with a few as ancient as the most recent glacial period, according to an article released last week.

“Our pieced-together glacial history shows that a coming ice-free Sierra Nevada is without precedent in human history since known peopling of the Americas around twenty thousand years ago,” the article declares.

Worldwide Threat to Glaciers

Ice masses globally are under threat amid the climate emergency. A study published in the month of May of the current year determined that almost forty percent of glaciers are doomed to thaw because of global heating. If such heating increases by 2.7C, which the planet is presently on course for, as many as seventy-five percent will disappear, leading to sea level rise and mass displacement.

Throughout the American west, glaciers have shrunk significantly since they were initially recorded in the 1800s, according to the article.

Concentration on Major Ice Bodies

The new research centers on four Sierra Nevada glaciers – the Conness, Maclure, Lyell and Palisade ice sheets – that are among the biggest and likely most ancient in the range. Their longevity during climate warming makes them “bellwethers” for examining ice loss in the west, the article notes.

Research Methods and Results

Researchers looked at recently exposed base rock around the glaciers and collected specimens to determine how extensively the region was blanketed by glacial ice. They found that the ice masses have enveloped swaths of the range for much longer than previously known – since prior to people inhabited North America.

The state's glaciers attained their maximum positions as early as thirty thousand years ago, the article’s authors stated, and a particular of the glaciers experts studied is thought to have grown 7,000 years ago, sooner than once thought. The disappearance of ice formations, for the initial time in recorded history, demonstrates the profound impacts of the climate change, a researcher of the investigation said.

Ecological and Symbolic Consequences

“We’ll be the initial ones to see the ice-free peaks,” said Andrew Jones, the principal investigator. “This has ecological implications for plants and animals. And it’s a symbolic loss. Climate change is very abstract, but these glaciers are concrete. They’re symbolic elements of the American West.”