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Far in California’s Sierra mountain range, enormous glaciers are vanishing and expected to melt away completely by the start of the coming hundred years, resulting in summits without glaciers for the first time in human history, recent studies has discovered.

Age-Old Beginnings of Sierra Range Glaciers

The range's ice sheets are older than previously known, dating back many thousands of years, with a few as old as the last ice age, according to an article released last week.

“Our reconstructed glacial history shows that a coming glacier-free Sierra Nevada is unprecedented in the history of humankind since documented peopling of the Americas ~20,000 years ago,” the study states.

Worldwide Risk to Ice Formations

Ice masses globally are at risk amid the climate emergency. A study published in May of this year found that nearly 40% of ice sheets are doomed to thaw because of global heating. If such heating rises by 2.7 degrees Celsius, which the world is currently on track for, as many as 75% will disappear, causing sea level rise and large-scale relocation.

Throughout the Western United States, ice formations have shrunk significantly since they were first documented in the 1800s, according to the article.

Concentration on Key Ice Bodies

The recent study centers on four Sierra Nevada glacial masses – the Conness, Maclure, Lyell and Palisade glaciers – that are some of the largest and probably most ancient in the range. Their longevity during climate warming makes them “bellwethers” for examining glacier disappearance in the west, the study states.

Research Methods and Findings

Scientists looked at recently exposed bedrock around the glaciers and took samples to ascertain how extensively the region was covered by glacial ice. They determined that the glaciers have enveloped large areas of the mountain system for much longer than earlier believed – since prior to humans inhabited North America.

The state's glaciers attained their peak extents as early as thirty thousand years ago, the study's researchers wrote, and one of the glaciers researchers looked at is believed to have grown seven thousand years ago, earlier than previously believed. The loss of glaciers, for the first time in human history, shows the dramatic impacts of the climate crisis, a researcher of the study said.

Environmental and Symbolic Consequences

“We’ll be the initial ones to see the glacier-less summits,” said Andrew Jones, the study’s lead author. “This has ecological implications for flora and fauna. And it’s a symbolic loss. Climate change is highly intangible, but these glaciers are concrete. They’re iconic features of the American West.”