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Far in California’s Sierra Nevada, enormous glaciers are vanishing and expected to melt away entirely by the start of the next century, resulting in summits without glaciers for the initial occasion in recorded human existence, recent studies has found.

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 ancient as the last ice age, according to a report released recently.

“Our pieced-together ice age record shows that a coming glacier-free Sierra Nevada is unprecedented in the history of humankind since known peopling of the Americas around twenty thousand years ago,” the study states.

Worldwide Threat to Glaciers

Glaciers globally are under threat amid the climate crisis. A study published in the month of May of the current year determined that almost forty percent of glaciers are destined to thaw because of global heating. If such heating increases by 2.7C, which the world is currently on course for, as many as seventy-five percent will disappear, leading to sea level rise and large-scale relocation.

Throughout the Western United States, glaciers have shrunk significantly since they were initially recorded in the late 19th century, according to the report.

Focus on Major Ice Bodies

The recent study focuses 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 amid climate warming makes them “indicators” for examining ice loss in the west, the article notes.

Research Methods and Findings

Scientists looked at newly uncovered bedrock around the glaciers and took samples to determine how extensively the area was blanketed by ice. They determined that the glaciers have covered swaths of the range for much longer than earlier believed – since prior to humans occupied North America.

California’s glacial sheets reached their peak extents as long ago as 30,000 years ago, the study's researchers stated, and a particular of the ice bodies researchers looked at is believed to have expanded 7,000 years ago, earlier than once thought. The disappearance of glaciers, for the first time in recorded history, shows the profound impacts of the climate crisis, a researcher of the study said.

Environmental and Symbolic Impact

“We’ll be the first to see the glacier-less summits,” said Andrew Jones, the study’s lead author. “This has ecological implications for plants and animals. And it’s a representational decline. Climate change is very abstract, but these ice masses are tangible. They’re symbolic elements of the American West.”