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Deep in the state of Sierra mountain range, enormous glaciers are disappearing and expected to dissolve completely by the start of the next century, leaving ice-free peaks for the initial occasion in human history, recent studies has found.

Age-Old Beginnings of Sierra Range Ice Masses

The mountain range’s ice sheets are more ancient than earlier understood, dating back tens of thousands of years, with some as old as the most recent glacial period, according to a report released last week.

“Our reconstructed ice age record indicates that a coming glacier-free Sierra Nevada is without precedent in human history since documented settlement of the Americas ~20,000 years ago,” the study states.

Worldwide Risk to Glaciers

Glaciers around the world are at risk during the climate crisis. A research published in the month of May of the current year determined that almost forty percent of ice sheets are destined to thaw because of global heating. If this warming increases by 2.7 degrees Celsius, which the world is presently on course for, as many as seventy-five percent will disappear, leading to ocean level increase and mass displacement.

Across the Western United States, glaciers have shrunk substantially since they were initially recorded in the late 19th century, according to the report.

Concentration on Major Glaciers

The recent study focuses on four Sierra Nevada glaciers – the Conness, Maclure, Lyell and Palisade ice sheets – that are some of the biggest and likely oldest in the mountain chain. Their durability amid global heating makes them “indicators” for examining glacier disappearance in the west, the article notes.

Research Methods and Findings

Scientists looked at newly uncovered bedrock around the ice formations and took samples to determine how extensively the region was blanketed by glacial ice. They found that the ice masses have enveloped swaths of the mountain system for far longer than earlier believed – since prior to people occupied North America.

California’s glaciers attained their maximum positions as early as thirty thousand years ago, the study's researchers stated, and one of the glaciers experts looked at is thought to have expanded 7,000 years ago, sooner than once thought. The disappearance of glaciers, for the initial time in human history, demonstrates the dramatic impacts of the climate crisis, one author of the investigation said.

Ecological and Representational Consequences

“We’ll be the first to witness the glacier-less summits,” said Andrew Jones, the principal investigator. “This has environmental ramifications for plants and animals. And it’s a symbolic loss. Global warming is very abstract, but these glaciers are concrete. They’re symbolic elements of the Western U.S..”