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Deep in the state of Sierra Nevada, massive ice formations are vanishing and expected to dissolve entirely by the beginning of the coming hundred years, resulting in ice-free peaks for the initial occasion in human history, new research has discovered.

Age-Old Beginnings of Sierra Nevada Glaciers

The range's ice sheets are older than previously known, tracing back tens of thousands of years, with some as ancient as the last ice age, according to a report released last week.

“Our pieced-together ice age record indicates that a coming glacier-free Sierra Nevada is without precedent in human history since known peopling of the Americas ~20,000 years ago,” the article states.

Worldwide Threat to Ice Formations

Ice masses around the world are at risk amid the climate crisis. A research released in May of this year found that almost forty percent of glaciers are doomed to melt because of climate warming. If this warming increases by 2.7C, which the planet is presently on course for, as many as seventy-five percent will disappear, leading to sea level rise and mass displacement.

Across the American west, ice formations have shrunk substantially since they were initially recorded in the late 19th century, according to the report.

Focus on Key Glaciers

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

Research Methods and Findings

Researchers looked at newly uncovered base rock around the ice formations and collected specimens to ascertain how extensively the area was covered by ice. They found that the glaciers have covered swaths of the mountain system for much longer than earlier believed – since before people inhabited North America.

The state's glaciers attained their peak extents as early as 30,000 years ago, the article’s authors wrote, and one of the ice bodies experts looked at is believed to have grown 7,000 years ago, earlier than once thought. The loss of ice formations, for the first time in human history, shows the profound effects of the climate crisis, a researcher of the study said.

Ecological and Symbolic 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 ramifications for flora and fauna. And it’s a representational decline. Climate change is highly intangible, but these glaciers are concrete. They’re symbolic elements of the Western U.S..”