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Deep in California’s Sierra Nevada, enormous ice formations are vanishing and projected to melt away entirely by the beginning 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 glaciers are older than previously known, tracing back tens of thousands of years, with a few as old as the most recent glacial period, according to a report released recently.

“Our reconstructed glacial history indicates that a coming glacier-free Sierra Nevada is without precedent in the history of humankind since known settlement of the Americas around twenty thousand years ago,” the study declares.

Global Threat to Glaciers

Glaciers around the world are under threat during the climate emergency. A research released in May of the current year determined that nearly 40% of ice sheets are doomed to melt because of climate warming. If this warming rises by 2.7 degrees Celsius, which the planet is presently on course for, as many as seventy-five percent will vanish, causing ocean level increase and large-scale relocation.

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

Focus on Major Glaciers

The recent study focuses on several Sierra Nevada glacial masses – the Palisade, Lyell, Maclure and Conness ice sheets – that are some of the biggest and probably most ancient in the range. Their durability amid global heating makes them “bellwethers” for examining ice loss in the west, the article states.

Research Methods and Findings

Researchers looked at recently exposed base rock around the glaciers and took samples to ascertain how extensively the region was covered by ice. They found that the glaciers have enveloped large areas of the mountain system for much longer than previously known – since before people inhabited North America.

The state's glacial sheets attained their maximum positions as long ago as thirty thousand years ago, the article’s authors wrote, and a particular of the glaciers experts looked at is thought to have expanded 7,000 years ago, sooner than previously believed. The disappearance of ice formations, for the first time in human history, demonstrates the profound effects of the climate change, one author of the investigation said.

Environmental and Representational Consequences

“We’ll be the initial ones to witness the ice-free peaks,” said Andrew Jones, the principal investigator. “This has environmental 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 Western U.S..”