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Deep in California’s Sierra mountain range, enormous ice formations are vanishing and projected to dissolve completely by the start of the coming hundred years, resulting in summits without glaciers for the first time in recorded human existence, new research has found.

Age-Old Origins of Sierra Range Ice Masses

The mountain range’s glaciers are older than earlier understood, dating back many thousands of years, with a few as old as the most recent glacial period, according to a report published last week.

“Our reconstructed glacial history indicates that a coming ice-free Sierra Nevada is unprecedented in human history since documented peopling of the Americas ~20,000 years ago,” the study declares.

Global Threat to Glaciers

Ice masses around the world are at risk amid the climate crisis. A study released in the month of May of the current year determined that nearly 40% of glaciers are doomed to thaw because of global heating. If such heating rises by 2.7 degrees Celsius, which the world is currently on course for, as up to seventy-five percent will disappear, leading to ocean level increase and large-scale relocation.

Throughout the American west, ice formations have shrunk significantly since they were first documented in the 1800s, according to the article.

Focus on Key Ice Bodies

The recent study centers on several Sierra Nevada glacial masses – the Conness, Maclure, Lyell and Palisade glaciers – that are some of the biggest and probably most ancient in the range. Their durability amid climate warming makes them “indicators” for examining ice loss in the western region, the study states.

Study Techniques and Findings

Scientists examined newly uncovered base rock around the ice formations and collected specimens to determine how extensively the area was covered by glacial ice. They found that the ice masses have enveloped swaths of the range for much longer than earlier believed – since before people inhabited North America.

California’s glacial sheets reached their maximum positions as early as thirty thousand years ago, the study's researchers wrote, and one of the glaciers researchers looked at is thought to have grown seven thousand years ago, earlier than previously believed. The loss of ice formations, for the initial time in human history, demonstrates the profound impacts of the climate crisis, one author of the study said.

Ecological and Symbolic Impact

“We’ll be the first to witness the glacier-less summits,” said the study's lead researcher, the study’s lead author. “This has ecological ramifications for plants and animals. And it’s a symbolic loss. Climate change is highly intangible, but these ice masses are concrete. They’re iconic features of the Western U.S..”