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Far in California’s Sierra mountain range, enormous ice formations are disappearing and projected to dissolve entirely by the beginning of the coming hundred years, resulting in ice-free peaks for the initial occasion in human history, new research has found.

Ancient Beginnings of Sierra Range Glaciers

The range's glaciers are more ancient than earlier understood, tracing back tens of thousands of years, with some as ancient as the last ice age, according to an article released recently.

“Our reconstructed ice age record indicates that a coming ice-free Sierra Nevada is unprecedented in the history of humankind since known peopling of the Americas ~20,000 years ago,” the article states.

Global Threat to Ice Formations

Ice masses around the world are under threat amid the climate emergency. A study released in May of the current year found that nearly 40% of glaciers are doomed to melt because of global heating. If this warming increases by 2.7C, which the world is currently on course for, as many as seventy-five percent will vanish, causing ocean level increase and mass displacement.

Across the Western United States, glaciers have diminished substantially since they were first documented in the 1800s, according to the report.

Concentration on Key Ice Bodies

The new research centers on four Sierra Nevada glacial masses – the Conness, Maclure, Lyell and Palisade glaciers – that are among the biggest and probably oldest in the mountain chain. Their durability during climate warming makes them “indicators” for examining ice loss in the western region, the article notes.

Research Methods and Results

Scientists looked at recently exposed base rock around the glaciers and took samples to determine how long the area was blanketed by ice. They found that the ice masses have covered large areas of the range for far longer than earlier believed – since before people occupied North America.

The state's glaciers attained their maximum positions as early as thirty thousand years ago, the study's researchers wrote, and a particular of the ice bodies experts studied is believed to have grown 7,000 years ago, sooner than once thought. The disappearance of ice formations, for the initial time in recorded history, demonstrates the dramatic effects of the climate change, a researcher of the investigation said.

Ecological and Representational Impact

“We’ll be the initial ones to see the glacier-less summits,” said Andrew Jones, the study’s lead author. “This has ecological implications for plants and animals. And it’s a representational decline. Climate change is highly intangible, but these ice masses are concrete. They’re iconic features of the Western U.S..”