🔗 Share this article

Far in California’s Sierra mountain range, massive ice formations are disappearing and expected to dissolve entirely by the start of the coming hundred years, leaving ice-free peaks for the initial occasion in recorded human existence, recent studies has found.

Age-Old Origins of Sierra Range Ice Masses

The range's ice sheets are older than earlier understood, tracing back tens of thousands of years, with a few as ancient as the last ice age, according to a report published recently.

“Our pieced-together glacial history indicates that a future ice-free Sierra Nevada is unprecedented in the history of humankind since known peopling of the Americas ~20,000 years ago,” the article declares.

Worldwide Risk to Ice Formations

Glaciers around the world are under threat during the climate crisis. A study released in May of this year found that almost forty percent of glaciers are doomed to melt because of global heating. If this warming increases by 2.7 degrees Celsius, which the world is presently on track for, as many as seventy-five percent will vanish, causing sea level rise and large-scale relocation.

Throughout the American west, ice formations have diminished significantly 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 Palisade, Lyell, Maclure and Conness glaciers – that are among the biggest and likely oldest in the mountain chain. Their longevity during global heating makes them “bellwethers” for examining glacier disappearance in the west, the study notes.

Research Methods and Results

Researchers looked at newly uncovered bedrock around the ice formations 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 earlier believed – since prior to people occupied North America.

The state's glaciers attained their maximum positions as long ago as thirty thousand years ago, the study's researchers wrote, and a particular of the ice bodies researchers studied is believed to have grown seven thousand years ago, sooner than once thought. The disappearance of glaciers, for the first time in recorded history, shows the dramatic effects of the climate change, a researcher of the investigation said.

Ecological and Representational Impact

“We’ll be the first to see the glacier-less summits,” said Andrew Jones, the principal investigator. “This has ecological ramifications for plants and animals. And it’s a representational decline. Global warming is highly intangible, but these ice masses are concrete. They’re symbolic elements of the American West.”