🔗 Share this article

Deep in the state of Sierra mountain range, enormous glaciers are disappearing and expected to melt away completely by the start of the coming hundred years, leaving summits without glaciers for the initial occasion in recorded human existence, new research has discovered.

Age-Old Origins of Sierra Nevada Glaciers

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

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

Worldwide Risk to Ice Formations

Glaciers globally are under threat amid the climate emergency. A study released in May of this year found that nearly 40% of ice sheets are doomed to thaw because of global heating. If such heating increases by 2.7 degrees Celsius, which the planet is presently on track for, as many as seventy-five percent will disappear, leading to ocean level increase and large-scale relocation.

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

Focus on Key Glaciers

The new research centers on several Sierra Nevada glacial masses – the Palisade, Lyell, Maclure and Conness glaciers – that are some of the largest and probably oldest in the range. Their durability amid climate warming makes them “indicators” for examining glacier disappearance in the western region, the article states.

Research Methods and Results

Scientists looked at newly uncovered bedrock around the glaciers and collected specimens to ascertain how extensively the area was blanketed by glacial ice. They found that the ice masses have enveloped large areas of the mountain system for much longer than previously known – since before people inhabited North America.

California’s glacial sheets attained their maximum positions as long ago as 30,000 years ago, the study's researchers wrote, and a particular of the ice bodies experts looked at is thought to have grown 7,000 years ago, earlier than once thought. The loss of ice formations, for the first time in human history, shows the profound effects of the climate change, a researcher of the investigation said.

Environmental and Symbolic Consequences

“We’ll be the initial ones to see the glacier-less summits,” said the study's lead researcher, the study’s lead author. “This has ecological ramifications for flora and fauna. And it’s a representational decline. Global warming is highly intangible, but these glaciers are tangible. They’re symbolic elements of the American West.”