Glacier Thawing Will Lead to Ice-Free Peaks in California for First Time in Recorded History

Far in the state of Sierra Nevada, enormous glaciers are vanishing and projected to melt away completely by the start of the coming hundred years, resulting in summits without glaciers for the first time in human history, recent studies has discovered.

Ancient Beginnings of Sierra Nevada Ice Masses

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 an article released recently.

“Our pieced-together glacial history shows that a coming ice-free Sierra Nevada is without precedent in human history since documented settlement of the Americas around twenty thousand years ago,” the article declares.

Global Risk to Ice Formations

Glaciers globally are under threat during the climate emergency. A study released in May of the current year found that almost forty percent of glaciers are destined to melt because of climate warming. If this warming rises by 2.7C, which the world is presently on track for, as many as 75% will vanish, leading to sea level rise and mass displacement.

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

Concentration on Key Glaciers

The recent study focuses on several Sierra Nevada glaciers – the Conness, Maclure, Lyell and Palisade glaciers – that are among the biggest and likely oldest in the mountain chain. Their durability amid global heating makes them “indicators” for examining ice loss in the west, the article notes.

Research Methods and Results

Researchers looked at newly uncovered base rock around the glaciers and took samples to determine how extensively the area was blanketed by glacial ice. They found that the ice masses have covered large areas of the range for much longer than earlier believed – since before humans occupied North America.

The state's glaciers attained their maximum positions as early as 30,000 years ago, the article’s authors stated, and a particular of the ice bodies researchers looked at is thought to have grown 7,000 years ago, earlier than once thought. The disappearance of ice formations, for the first time in human history, shows the dramatic impacts of the climate crisis, a researcher of the study said.

Environmental and Representational Consequences

“We’ll be the initial ones to see the ice-free peaks,” said Andrew Jones, the study’s lead author. “This has ecological ramifications for flora and fauna. And it’s a representational decline. Climate change is very abstract, but these ice masses are tangible. They’re symbolic elements of the Western U.S..”