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Far in California’s Sierra Nevada, massive ice formations are vanishing and expected to dissolve completely by the beginning of the coming hundred years, leaving summits without glaciers for the first time in human history, recent studies has discovered.

Ancient Beginnings of Sierra Nevada Glaciers

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

“Our reconstructed glacial history shows that a coming glacier-free Sierra Nevada is unprecedented in the history of humankind since documented settlement of the Americas around twenty thousand years ago,” the study declares.

Worldwide Risk to Ice Formations

Glaciers globally are at risk during the climate emergency. A research released in the month of May of this year determined that nearly 40% of ice sheets are destined to thaw because of global heating. If this warming rises by 2.7C, which the world is currently on course for, as many as seventy-five percent will vanish, causing ocean level increase and large-scale relocation.

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

Focus on Major Glaciers

The recent study focuses on four Sierra Nevada glaciers – the Conness, Maclure, Lyell and Palisade glaciers – that are some of the biggest and probably oldest in the mountain chain. Their durability during global heating makes them “bellwethers” for studying ice loss in the western region, the study states.

Study Techniques and Findings

Researchers examined newly uncovered base rock around the glaciers and collected specimens to determine how extensively the area was covered by ice. They determined that the ice masses have enveloped swaths of the mountain system for much longer than earlier believed – since prior to people occupied North America.

California’s glacial sheets reached their maximum positions as long ago as 30,000 years ago, the study's researchers wrote, and one of the ice bodies researchers looked at is believed to have expanded 7,000 years ago, sooner than previously believed. The loss of ice formations, for the initial time in recorded history, demonstrates the profound effects of the climate change, one author of the investigation said.

Ecological and Symbolic Impact

“We’ll be the initial ones to see the glacier-less summits,” said Andrew Jones, the study’s lead author. “This has ecological ramifications for flora and fauna. And it’s a symbolic loss. Global warming is highly intangible, but these ice masses are concrete. They’re iconic features of the Western U.S..”