🔗 Share this article

Deep in the state of Sierra mountain range, enormous glaciers are vanishing and expected to dissolve entirely 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 Ice Masses

The range's glaciers are older than previously known, tracing back many thousands of years, with a few as old as the most recent glacial period, according to a report released last week.

“Our reconstructed ice age record shows that a coming ice-free Sierra Nevada is without precedent in human history since known peopling of the Americas around twenty thousand years ago,” the article declares.

Worldwide Threat to Glaciers

Ice masses around the world are under threat during the climate emergency. A study released in May of the current year determined that nearly 40% of glaciers are destined to melt because of global heating. If this warming increases by 2.7 degrees Celsius, which the world is currently on track for, as up to seventy-five percent will vanish, leading to sea level rise and mass displacement.

Throughout the American west, glaciers have diminished substantially since they were initially recorded in the late 19th century, according to the article.

Focus on Key Glaciers

The recent study focuses on several Sierra Nevada glacial masses – the Conness, Maclure, Lyell and Palisade glaciers – that are some of the biggest and likely oldest in the range. Their durability during climate warming makes them “bellwethers” for studying glacier disappearance in the west, the article notes.

Study Techniques and Results

Scientists examined recently exposed base rock around the ice formations and collected specimens to determine how long the region was covered by ice. They determined that the ice masses have covered large areas of the mountain system for far longer than earlier believed – since before humans occupied North America.

California’s glaciers reached their peak extents as early as thirty thousand years ago, the article’s authors wrote, and one of the glaciers researchers looked at is thought to have grown 7,000 years ago, sooner than previously believed. The disappearance of ice formations, for the first time in human history, shows the profound impacts of the climate crisis, a researcher of the investigation said.

Environmental and Symbolic Impact

“We’ll be the first to see the ice-free peaks,” 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 very abstract, but these ice masses are tangible. They’re symbolic elements of the American West.”