🔗 Share this article

Deep in California’s Sierra Nevada, enormous glaciers are vanishing and projected to melt away entirely by the beginning of the next century, leaving ice-free peaks for the first time in recorded human existence, recent studies has discovered.

Age-Old Origins of Sierra Range Glaciers

The mountain range’s ice sheets are more ancient than earlier understood, tracing back many thousands of years, with some as old as the most recent glacial period, according to an article published last week.

“Our reconstructed glacial history indicates that a coming ice-free Sierra Nevada is without precedent in the history of humankind since known settlement of the Americas ~20,000 years ago,” the article declares.

Worldwide Threat to Glaciers

Glaciers around the world are under threat amid the climate emergency. A study released in the month of May of this year determined that nearly 40% of glaciers are doomed to melt because of global heating. If such heating increases by 2.7 degrees Celsius, which the planet is presently on course for, as many as 75% will disappear, causing sea level rise and mass displacement.

Across the American west, glaciers have shrunk significantly since they were initially recorded in the late 19th century, according to the article.

Concentration on Key Glaciers

The recent study centers on four Sierra Nevada glaciers – the Conness, Maclure, Lyell and Palisade glaciers – that are among the biggest and likely oldest in the range. Their longevity during global heating makes them “bellwethers” for examining glacier disappearance in the western region, the study states.

Research Methods and Findings

Researchers examined newly uncovered bedrock around the glaciers and collected specimens to ascertain how extensively the region was covered by ice. They found that the ice masses have covered swaths of the range for much longer than previously known – since prior to humans inhabited North America.

The state's glaciers reached their maximum positions as long ago as 30,000 years ago, the article’s authors stated, and a particular of the ice bodies experts looked at is thought to have grown 7,000 years ago, earlier than previously believed. The disappearance of ice formations, for the first time in recorded history, shows the profound impacts of the climate crisis, one author of the study said.

Environmental 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 ecological ramifications for flora and fauna. And it’s a representational decline. Global warming is highly intangible, but these glaciers are tangible. They’re iconic features of the American West.”