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Far in the state of Sierra mountain range, enormous glaciers are disappearing and expected to melt away entirely by the beginning of the next century, leaving summits without glaciers for the first time in recorded human existence, recent studies has found.

Ancient Origins of Sierra Nevada Glaciers

The mountain range’s ice sheets are more ancient than previously known, tracing back tens of thousands of years, with a few as ancient as the last ice age, according to a report released recently.

“Our reconstructed ice age record indicates that a future ice-free Sierra Nevada is without precedent in the history of humankind since known settlement of the Americas around twenty thousand years ago,” the study declares.

Worldwide Threat to Ice Formations

Glaciers around the world are at risk amid the climate emergency. A research released in the month of May of the current year found that nearly 40% of glaciers are destined to melt because of global heating. If this warming increases by 2.7 degrees Celsius, which the world is presently on course for, as many as seventy-five percent will vanish, causing ocean level increase and large-scale relocation.

Throughout the American west, glaciers have diminished substantially since they were initially recorded in the late 19th century, according to the report.

Concentration on Major Ice Bodies

The recent study centers on four Sierra Nevada glacial masses – the Palisade, Lyell, Maclure and Conness ice sheets – that are some of the biggest and likely oldest in the range. Their durability during climate warming makes them “bellwethers” for examining ice loss in the west, the article notes.

Study Techniques and Results

Scientists looked at recently exposed bedrock around the ice formations and collected specimens to ascertain 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 before people inhabited 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 researchers looked at is thought to have expanded seven thousand years ago, sooner than previously believed. The disappearance of glaciers, for the first time in human history, demonstrates the profound impacts of the climate crisis, a researcher of the study said.

Environmental and Representational Impact

“We’ll be the first to see the glacier-less summits,” said Andrew Jones, the study’s lead author. “This has ecological implications for flora and fauna. And it’s a representational decline. Global warming is very abstract, but these glaciers are tangible. They’re symbolic elements of the American West.”