Sierra Nevada glaciers vanishing for first time in over 10,000 years

Sierra Nevada mountain glaciers in the western United States are on the verge of disappearance in 75 years or less.

According to a new research study published in the journal Science Advances, this is for the first time the world will witness Sierra Nevada mountain peaks without the ice in over 10,000 years.

These mountain glaciers near Yosemite National Park have been covered with snow throughout the Holocene era, marking the last Ice Age.

These glaciers reached their maximum extent about 30,000 years ago due to the absence of human populations. After the arrival of humans, they have never seen an ice-free Sierra Nevada, as reported by the study.

Andrew Jones, a researcher at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, who led the study said, “It means that when these glaciers die off, we will be the first humans to see ice-free peaks in Yosemite.”

"Anthropogenic climate change is therefore likely creating a no-analog scenario in the western United States within the current interglacial," the researchers wrote in the new paper.

According to geoscientists, these glaciers have shown variations throughout the Holocene age. In the warm early Holocene, the Sierra glaciers reduced in size before expanding again in the mid-to-late Holocene. Since the last century, these glaciers have shrunk to formidable levels.

Owing to climate change driven by rising GHG levels and fossil fuels burning, glaciers are rapidly receding globally from the Himalayas to Andes.

California has lost around 70-90 percent of their ice since the late 1800s.