🔗 Share this article

Deep in California’s Sierra Nevada, massive glaciers are vanishing and expected to melt away completely by the start of the next century, resulting in ice-free peaks for the initial occasion in human history, recent studies has found.

Ancient Beginnings of Sierra Nevada Ice Masses

The range's glaciers are older than previously known, tracing back many thousands of years, with a few as ancient as the most recent glacial period, according to an article published last week.

“Our reconstructed ice age record shows that a future ice-free Sierra Nevada is without precedent in the history of humankind since documented settlement of the Americas ~20,000 years ago,” the study states.

Global Threat to Glaciers

Ice masses globally are at risk during the climate crisis. A study published in May of this year determined that almost forty percent of glaciers are destined to thaw because of climate warming. If this warming rises by 2.7 degrees Celsius, which the world is currently on course for, as up to seventy-five percent will vanish, causing ocean level increase and mass displacement.

Throughout the American west, glaciers have diminished substantially since they were first documented in the 1800s, according to the article.

Concentration on Major Glaciers

The recent study focuses on four Sierra Nevada glacial masses – the Palisade, Lyell, Maclure and Conness ice sheets – that are among the largest and likely oldest in the range. Their longevity during global heating makes them “indicators” for studying glacier disappearance in the western region, the article notes.

Research Methods and Findings

Researchers looked at recently exposed base rock around the ice formations and took samples to ascertain how extensively the area was blanketed by glacial ice. They determined that the ice masses have enveloped swaths of the range for far longer than earlier believed – since before people inhabited North America.

California’s glaciers attained their peak extents as early as thirty thousand years ago, the article’s authors wrote, and a particular of the glaciers researchers studied is thought to have expanded 7,000 years ago, sooner than once thought. The disappearance of ice formations, for the initial time in recorded history, shows the dramatic impacts of the climate crisis, one author of the investigation said.

Environmental and Representational Consequences

“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 plants and animals. And it’s a symbolic loss. Climate change is very abstract, but these ice masses are tangible. They’re iconic features of the Western U.S..”