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Deep in California’s Sierra mountain range, massive ice formations are vanishing and expected to melt away completely by the beginning of the next century, leaving ice-free peaks for the initial occasion in human history, new research has found.

Age-Old Beginnings of Sierra Range Ice Masses

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

“Our pieced-together glacial history shows that a coming ice-free Sierra Nevada is unprecedented in the history of humankind since documented peopling of the Americas ~20,000 years ago,” the article states.

Worldwide Threat to Ice Formations

Glaciers globally are under threat amid the climate crisis. A study published in May of the current year found that almost forty percent of ice sheets are destined to thaw because of global heating. If such heating increases by 2.7 degrees Celsius, which the planet is currently on track for, as many as seventy-five percent will vanish, leading to sea level rise and large-scale relocation.

Throughout the Western United States, ice formations have diminished substantially since they were initially recorded in the 1800s, according to the article.

Concentration on Key Ice Bodies

The new research centers on several Sierra Nevada glacial masses – the Conness, Maclure, Lyell and Palisade glaciers – that are some of the largest and likely oldest in the range. Their durability amid global heating makes them “bellwethers” for examining glacier disappearance in the western region, the study notes.

Study Techniques and Results

Scientists looked at recently exposed bedrock around the glaciers and took samples to determine how extensively the region was blanketed by glacial ice. They found that the glaciers have enveloped swaths of the mountain system for far longer than previously known – since before humans occupied North America.

The state's glaciers reached their maximum positions as long ago as thirty thousand years ago, the study's researchers stated, and one of the ice bodies experts studied is believed to have expanded seven thousand years ago, earlier than previously believed. The loss of glaciers, for the initial time in human history, shows the dramatic impacts of the climate change, a researcher of the study said.

Ecological and Representational Consequences

“We’ll be the first to see the ice-free peaks,” said Andrew Jones, the study’s lead author. “This has ecological ramifications for plants and animals. And it’s a representational decline. Global warming is very abstract, but these glaciers are concrete. They’re symbolic elements of the American West.”