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Deep in the state of Sierra mountain range, massive glaciers are disappearing and projected to melt away entirely by the beginning of the coming hundred years, leaving summits without glaciers for the first time in human history, new research 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 published recently.

“Our pieced-together ice age record indicates that a future ice-free Sierra Nevada is without precedent in the history of humankind since known settlement 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 found that almost forty percent of ice sheets are doomed to melt because of climate warming. If this warming increases by 2.7 degrees Celsius, which the world is presently on course for, as many as seventy-five percent will vanish, leading to ocean level increase and large-scale relocation.

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

Focus on Key Glaciers

The recent study focuses on four Sierra Nevada glaciers – the Conness, Maclure, Lyell and Palisade glaciers – that are some of the largest and probably oldest in the mountain chain. Their longevity during climate warming makes them “indicators” for examining glacier disappearance in the west, the article notes.

Research Methods and Findings

Researchers examined recently exposed bedrock around the glaciers and took samples to determine how long the region was covered by glacial ice. They determined that the glaciers have covered large areas of the range for much longer than earlier believed – since before humans occupied North America.

The state's glaciers attained their maximum positions as early as 30,000 years ago, the study's researchers stated, and one of the ice bodies experts looked at is thought to have grown seven thousand years ago, earlier than previously believed. The disappearance of glaciers, for the initial time in human history, shows the profound effects of the climate crisis, a researcher of the study said.

Environmental and Symbolic Consequences

“We’ll be the initial ones to see the ice-free peaks,” said Andrew Jones, the study’s lead author. “This has ecological ramifications for flora and fauna. And it’s a representational decline. Climate change is very abstract, but these ice masses are tangible. They’re symbolic elements of the Western U.S..”