🔗 Share this article

Deep in the state of Sierra mountain range, enormous glaciers are disappearing and projected to dissolve entirely by the start of the coming hundred years, leaving summits without glaciers for the initial occasion in recorded human existence, recent studies has discovered.

Ancient Beginnings of Sierra Range Glaciers

The mountain range’s ice sheets are more ancient than earlier understood, dating back many thousands of years, with some as old as the last ice age, according to an article published last week.

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

Worldwide Risk to Glaciers

Glaciers around the world are under threat amid the climate crisis. A research released in May of this year determined that almost forty percent of glaciers are doomed to melt because of climate warming. If this warming increases by 2.7 degrees Celsius, which the world is presently on track for, as up to 75% will vanish, causing sea level rise and large-scale relocation.

Throughout the Western United States, glaciers have diminished substantially since they were first documented in the 1800s, according to the report.

Concentration on Major Glaciers

The new research focuses on several Sierra Nevada glacial masses – the Conness, Maclure, Lyell and Palisade ice sheets – that are some of the biggest and probably oldest in the mountain chain. Their durability during climate warming makes them “indicators” for studying ice loss in the west, the article notes.

Study Techniques and Results

Scientists examined newly uncovered bedrock around the ice formations and took samples to ascertain how long the region was blanketed by glacial ice. They found that the glaciers have covered swaths of the mountain system for far longer than previously known – since before people occupied North America.

The state's glaciers reached their peak extents as early as thirty thousand years ago, the article’s authors wrote, and one of the ice bodies researchers looked at is thought to have expanded 7,000 years ago, earlier than previously believed. The loss of ice formations, for the initial time in human history, demonstrates the dramatic impacts of the climate crisis, a researcher of the investigation said.

Ecological 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 plants and animals. And it’s a symbolic loss. Climate change is very abstract, but these ice masses are tangible. They’re iconic features of the Western U.S..”