南極冰蓋崩塌曾令海平面上升9米

The collapse of a major Antarctic ice sheet once caused a “global flood” and scientists now fear it could happen again.

南極大冰蓋的崩塌曾經(jīng)引發(fā)了一場“全球洪水”，科學(xué)家們現(xiàn)在擔(dān)心這種情況可能再次發(fā)生。

The devastating collapse caused sea levels to rise between 20 and 30 feet compared to today. The catastrophic sea level rise drowned huge areas of now-dry land.

毀滅性的崩塌導(dǎo)致海平面比如今上升了20到30英尺。災(zāi)難性上升的海平面淹沒了大片現(xiàn)已干涸的土地。

This cataclysmic event, described in Science, took place around 125,000 years ago.

《科學(xué)》雜志描述的這場大災(zāi)難發(fā)生在大約12.5萬年前。

At the time, temperatures were only slightly warmer than today, but sea levels were significantly higher.

當(dāng)時(shí)，氣溫僅比如今略高，但海平面明顯更高。

And scientists now believe that the source of the water was the collapse of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet.

科學(xué)家們現(xiàn)在認(rèn)為，水來源于崩塌的南極西部冰蓋。

There are major concerns over the stability of this ice sheet, with studies going back several years warning over a pending “collapse.”

人們對這片冰蓋的穩(wěn)定性有很大的擔(dān)憂，早在幾年前就有研究警告說，這片冰蓋即將“崩塌”。

The base of the ice sheet lies below sea level and is now at risk due to increasingly warm ocean waters.

冰蓋底部位于海平面以下，由于海水不斷變暖而處于危險(xiǎn)之中。

The worry is that “the West Antarctic Ice Sheet might not need a huge nudge to budge,” Jeremy Shakun, a paleoclimatologist at Boston College, told Science.

波士頓學(xué)院的古氣候?qū)W家杰里米·沙肯告訴《科學(xué)》雜志，令人擔(dān)憂的是“南極西部冰蓋可能不需要巨大的推動(dòng)力就能移動(dòng)”。

He warned that the ice mass lost from the sheet in the past two decades may not be a “short-term blip” – but instead the start of a major collapse.

他警告說，過去20年里冰蓋上的冰消融可能不是一個(gè)“短期現(xiàn)象”，而是大崩塌的開始。

According to some studies, the ancient ice sheet collapse caused sea levels to rise as quickly as 8 feet a century.

根據(jù)一些研究，古代冰蓋的崩塌導(dǎo)致海平面以每世紀(jì)8英尺的速度上升。

Worryingly, temperatures were 2 degrees above modern preindustrial levels – and we’re at 1 degree higher than that, today.

令人擔(dān)憂的是，當(dāng)時(shí)的氣溫比現(xiàn)代前工業(yè)時(shí)代高2度，而我們?nèi)缃竦臍鉁乇饶菚r(shí)高1度。

Climate scientists have regularly warned that global temperatures rising to 2 degrees could have catastrophic consequences for humanity.

氣候科學(xué)家經(jīng)常警告說，全球氣溫上升到高2度可能會(huì)給人類帶來災(zāi)難性的后果。

The aim for global leaders and environmentalists is to restrict warming to 1.5 degrees – to avoid dangerous levels of climate change.

全球領(lǐng)導(dǎo)人和環(huán)保人士的目標(biāo)是將升溫控制在1.5度以內(nèi)，以避免氣候變化達(dá)到危險(xiǎn)的水平。

Scientists pinned the rising sea levels to the ice sheet collapse by investigating Antarctic ice cores.

科學(xué)家通過對南極冰芯的調(diào)查，將海平面上升歸咎于冰蓋的崩塌。

Researchers from the University of Oregon, NASA and others published a detailed paper for the American Geophysical Union, which revealed the truth behind a worrying climate incident from our past.

來自俄勒岡大學(xué)、美國航空航天局以及其他機(jī)構(gòu)的研究人員為美國地球物理聯(lián)盟發(fā)表了一篇詳細(xì)的論文，揭示了過去令人擔(dān)憂的氣候事件背后的真相。

During the early Eemian period (when sea levels were high), you’d expect to see silt from a number of areas around ice sheets – due to ice-driven erosion.

在早期的埃米紀(jì)(當(dāng)時(shí)海平面很高)，你可能會(huì)看到來自冰蓋周圍許多地區(qū)的淤泥，這是由冰川侵蝕造成的。

But there was no evidence of sediments coming from the West Antarctic Ice Sheet in the cores.

但沒有證據(jù)表明這些冰芯中有來自南極西部冰蓋的沉積物。

The obvious explanation is that the ice sheet simply ceased to exist – or collapsed so much that it couldn’t erode anymore.

最明顯的解釋是冰蓋根本就不存在了或者崩塌到再也不能侵蝕的程度了。

Sadly, it’s impossible to say with 100 percent certainty that the melting ice sheet sparked enormous sea-level rise.

遺憾的是，不能百分之百地肯定是融化的冰蓋引發(fā)了海平面的大幅上升。