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Deep in California’s Sierra mountain range, enormous glaciers are disappearing and projected to melt away completely by the start of the next century, resulting in ice-free peaks for the first time in human history, new research has discovered.

Age-Old Beginnings of Sierra Nevada Glaciers

The range's ice sheets are older than earlier understood, dating back many thousands of years, with a few as old as the most recent glacial period, according to an article released last week.

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

Worldwide Threat to Ice Formations

Glaciers around the world are under threat amid the climate emergency. A study published in May of this year found that almost forty percent of ice sheets are destined to melt because of global heating. If this warming increases by 2.7C, which the planet is presently on track for, as many as seventy-five percent will disappear, causing ocean level increase and mass displacement.

Throughout the American west, ice formations have shrunk substantially since they were first documented in the late 19th century, according to the article.

Focus on Major Glaciers

The new research focuses 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 mountain chain. Their longevity during global heating makes them “bellwethers” for examining glacier disappearance in the western region, the study states.

Study Techniques and Findings

Researchers looked at newly uncovered base rock around the glaciers and took samples to determine how long the region was blanketed by ice. They determined that the glaciers have covered large areas of the range for far longer than previously known – since prior to humans inhabited North America.

California’s glacial sheets reached their peak extents as early as thirty thousand years ago, the study's researchers wrote, and one of the glaciers experts studied is thought to have expanded seven thousand years ago, sooner than once thought. The disappearance of glaciers, for the initial time in recorded history, demonstrates the dramatic effects of the climate change, one author of the investigation said.

Ecological and Symbolic Consequences

“We’ll be the initial ones to see the glacier-less summits,” said the study's lead researcher, the principal investigator. “This has environmental implications for flora and fauna. And it’s a representational decline. Global warming is highly intangible, but these ice masses are tangible. They’re symbolic elements of the American West.”