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Deep in California’s Sierra mountain range, enormous ice formations are vanishing and expected to melt away completely by the start of the coming hundred years, resulting in ice-free peaks for the initial occasion in recorded human existence, new research has discovered.

Ancient Beginnings of Sierra Range Ice Masses

The mountain range’s glaciers are older than earlier understood, tracing back tens of thousands of years, with a few as old as the last ice age, according to a report published last week.

“Our reconstructed ice age record shows that a future ice-free Sierra Nevada is without precedent in the history of humankind since known peopling of the Americas ~20,000 years ago,” the study states.

Worldwide Threat to Ice Formations

Glaciers around the world are at risk amid the climate crisis. A research released in May of the current year found that almost forty percent of ice sheets are doomed to melt because of global heating. If this warming rises by 2.7C, which the world is currently on course for, as up to 75% will disappear, causing ocean level increase and large-scale relocation.

Across the American west, glaciers have diminished substantially since they were initially recorded in the 1800s, according to the article.

Focus on Key Ice Bodies

The new research centers on several Sierra Nevada glaciers – the Palisade, Lyell, Maclure and Conness glaciers – that are among the biggest and probably most ancient in the range. Their durability during climate warming makes them “indicators” for examining glacier disappearance in the west, the study notes.

Study Techniques and Results

Scientists looked at newly uncovered base rock around the ice formations and collected specimens to determine how extensively the area was blanketed by glacial ice. They determined that the glaciers have enveloped swaths of the range for much longer than earlier believed – since prior to people inhabited North America.

The state's glacial sheets reached their peak extents as early as 30,000 years ago, the article’s authors stated, and a particular of the ice bodies researchers studied is believed to have grown seven thousand years ago, earlier than once thought. The disappearance of ice formations, for the initial time in recorded history, demonstrates the profound impacts of the climate crisis, a researcher of the study said.

Environmental and Representational Consequences

“We’ll be the initial ones to witness the glacier-less summits,” said the study's lead researcher, the principal investigator. “This has environmental implications for plants and animals. And it’s a symbolic loss. Global warming is very abstract, but these ice masses are concrete. They’re symbolic elements of the Western U.S..”