Glacier Thawing Will Lead to Ice-Free Summits in California for First Time in Recorded History
Far in the state of Sierra mountain range, massive glaciers are vanishing and expected to melt away entirely by the beginning of the coming hundred years, resulting in summits without glaciers for the initial occasion in recorded human existence, recent studies has found.
Ancient Beginnings of Sierra Nevada Glaciers
The range's ice sheets are older than earlier understood, dating back many thousands of years, with a few as ancient as the last ice age, according to an article published recently.
“Our pieced-together glacial history shows that a coming glacier-free Sierra Nevada is unprecedented in human history since known settlement of the Americas around twenty thousand years ago,” the article states.
Global Threat to Ice Formations
Ice masses globally are under threat amid the climate emergency. A study 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 such heating rises by 2.7C, which the planet is presently on course for, as many as seventy-five percent will disappear, causing sea level rise and large-scale relocation.
Across the Western United States, glaciers have shrunk substantially since they were first documented in the 1800s, according to the report.
Focus on Key Glaciers
The recent study focuses on four Sierra Nevada glacial masses – the Palisade, Lyell, Maclure and Conness ice sheets – that are among the biggest and probably most ancient in the range. Their longevity during global heating makes them “indicators” for examining glacier disappearance in the west, the study notes.
Research Methods and Results
Scientists examined newly uncovered bedrock around the ice formations and took samples to determine how long the area was covered by glacial ice. They determined that the ice masses have covered large areas of the range for much longer than previously known – since prior to people inhabited North America.
The state's glacial sheets reached their maximum positions as long ago as 30,000 years ago, the study's researchers stated, and one of the ice bodies experts looked at is thought to have expanded seven thousand years ago, sooner than previously believed. The disappearance of glaciers, for the first time in recorded history, demonstrates the profound impacts of the climate change, a researcher of the investigation said.
Ecological and Symbolic Consequences
“We’ll be the initial ones to witness the ice-free peaks,” said the study's lead researcher, the principal investigator. “This has ecological implications for flora and fauna. And it’s a representational decline. Climate change is highly intangible, but these ice masses are concrete. They’re symbolic elements of the American West.”
